Dragon in a box
by Gregsonator
Summary: The 21 year old turtles' lives are thrown into chaos with the arrival of a super mutant named Olivia. However, while the turtles are used to dealing with bad guys, they are nothing in comparison to a slightly spastic, hormonal teenager with a tendency for
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

It was a crisp Friday night, the air bitter from the exhausts of cars lined nose to tail down the roads and the sky blocked out by clouds stained yellow with light. Night-time was no different to daytime in New York City, still overcrowded with rude citizens and orchestrated by a symphony of taxi horns echoing around the manmade titans. You would still get mugged, wind up in a gutter, or six feet under, whether the sun was shining behind the grey clouds or not. The only difference was that the freaks came out at night to stalk the sewers, alley ways and roof tops, emerging from the shadows to fight and reseeding into the darkness once the light of day dare shine upon their wretched form.

On that Friday night, four of those freaks swiftly but silently darted across the rooftops, a blur to anyone looking up, completely submerged in the shadows like ninja. Fitting, as these creatures were ninja, and but certainly not human.

A warehouse in a silent section of the industrial district was their target, all the doors and windows were boarded up to make it seem empty but light still seeped out through the glass panels on the roof and contributed to the cities light pollution issue. As they leapt down from a higher building onto the tin roof, the creatures only made the slightest sound and slid down to one of the glass panels that allowed a window into the warehouse and its activities. Holding onto the frame of the glass, they peered inside and found what they had been looking for. But as the light illuminated the contents of the warehouse, it also illuminated them, scaring away the shadows and allowing the world to see what they were.

The green skin, hard shells and coloured masks of the four mutant turtle-human hybrids would have been an abhorred sight to any human who saw them. Thankfully, their training in Ninjitsu aided them to stay in the shadows and continue their lives without offending or frightening any human that called the city home whilst also protecting those humans from the dangers that lurked within their city.

"Guys, we've found it." Donatello, the smartest of the four turtles, in the purple mask gasped, directing his brother's attention to a metal box in the warehouse. The box was surrounded by metal bars that created a cage without a roof, and surrounded that were the armed guards facing in all directions. But these guards were not human soldiers armed with machine guns, but robotic suits harbouring the alien race known as the Kraang; vicious life forms that resembled a brain with needles for teeth and a pig like squeal, holding high tech laser guns that incinerated whatever they hit. These aliens were no strangers to the turtles, and the turtles were certainly well known by the Kraang who often found their plans to mutate humans and terraform the Earth foiled by the heroes in the half shell.

The four brothers leaned in closer and peered at the metal box. Yellow _DANGER_ tape was plastered all over it so whatever lurked inside obviously had the power to cause major damage and they didn't want anyone getting their hands on it.

"That must be the weapon Kirtsman told us about." Donatello added, squinting to see more detail. The turtle in the blue mask averted his gaze to the rest of the room, the security dotted around on different levels and the huge tank of glowing turquoise mutagen responsible for their mutation from pet store baby turtles into ninja turtle-human hybrids. Around the narrow tank that resembled a lava lamp were Kraang computer panels in a shape that was not dissimilar to that of the Tardis. What the alien robots were programming Leonardo had no idea.

"Ooh, I wonder what it is?" The turtle in orange asked with excitement, his baby blue eyes lighting up with excitement at the possibilities. "A plasma cannon? Rocket launcher?" With each possible weapon his pitch got higher and his tone more excitable, but that was to be expected of the fun-loving Michelangelo with incredible talent but no patience to pursue anything.

"I'm gonna use a rocket launcher on you in a minute if ya' don't shut up!" Raphael warned, raising his fist to hit Michelangelo if he continued with the list. Raphael was the most irritable of the four and had a temper to match his blazing red mask. The tails of the mask were as scratched and torn as his personality, and it only took the slightest comment to unleash the chained beast and cause a riot. Leonardo often despaired at his brother's lack of compassion or tolerance for anything, but on this occasion he chose to ignore it.

"Whatever it is we know the Kraang aren't going to use it for good. We should destroy it." He said sternly, clasping his jaw in thought.

"Actually Leo," Donatello quickly interjected before Leonardo's word became law, "if we take the weapon I could study its technology to help us fight back against the Kraang." Donatello's skills extended to all areas of science, but engineering was the one skill that he excelled in more than any other. Responsible for all things technological, Donatello could create devices to detect certain specific life forms, hack into Kraang computer systems with a hula girl toaster, and even make a robot with a built in AI capable of human emotions. Leonardo knew that Donatello would surely be able to make something useful of whatever weapon was inside the metal box, and if it could help them fight against the Kraang then it would be an added bonus. So long as the weapon didn't destroy them as he tinkered with it.

"Oh my God!" Michelangelo squealed; sounding like a kid who had just discovered their favourite TV show had released a new episode. "You could build us a super weapon to take down the Kraang, or a giant robot with cannons for arms, laser vision, and a built in iPod." Raphael's fist came down hard on the top of Michelangelo's thick skull, making a horrible thump and nocking the enthusiastic turtle's head down into his shell a little.

"I told you to shut the fuck up!" Raphael snapped with his unusually sharp teeth bared. The veins in his forehead bludged and a low grumble behind his voice almost made it seem like a beast was trying to escape. Leonardo resisted the urge to let it slide and avoid conflict for the sake of maintaining peace, and chose to tell his brother to stop. He knew he was running the risk of an all-out fight between himself and the caged beast right then and there on the roof top, as had occurred many times before, but he was willing to risk it to assert his authority over the brothers that were supposed to follow their leader's every command.

Raphael shot Leonardo a cold glare that very quickly turned into a raging fire within the emerald spheres, the beast scratching at the insides, desperate to escape and cause calamity.

"Why are we just standing about? We're wasting time!" Raphael hissed, his anger at the situation directed mainly at Leonardo as the leader always decided the time for action and the time for standing about. Generally, Raphael disagreed with those decisions and often did as he pleased, even if it meant a lecture from his brother afterwards.

"And what would you suppose we do?" Leonardo asked rather calmly for someone trying to hold back his own irritation, folding his arms and cocking his head slightly to the side in a way that always managed to tick Raphael off just a little bit more.

"We should attack and take the weapon before they use it against us!" Raphael growled angrily, gritting his teeth as the grumble in the back of his throat could be heard behind his words again. Leonardo sighed and shook his head, and yet another vein appeared on Raphael's forehead.

"We are Ninja not thugs. We use stealth instead of just charging forward blindly like fools."

Leonardo turned his back to Raphael who looked as if he wouldn't be opposed to pushing his brother of the rooftop, and directed his attention to his other, less volatile, brothers to devise their plan of action. Raphael folded his arms across his extraordinary broad chest and he glared at the back of Leonardo's head as his brothers formed a huddle.

"Okay so here's the plan. We sneak in and take out the guards on the upper levels and move them out of site. Then we turn our attention to the guards on the lower levels closer to the shadows."

"Should we cause a diversion to draw them towards the shadows?" Donatello suggested, trying to help his brother as best he could. His physical skills in Ninjitsu may have been the weakest, but he knew the theory and one his brothers could easily pull it off. Michelangelo just listened to them, a blank look on his face as he thought of something completely irrelevant and meaningless. Oddly enough Michelangelo was naturally the most skilled at Ninjitsu and could even fight without seeing or hearing what was going on, but he lacked Donatello's concentration, Leonardo's diligence, and Raphael's raw strength, so he often found himself defeated instead of victorious.

There was a loud crash and the shattering of a window that froze the three of them still, petrified as if Medusa herself had appeared before them. Then they glanced over to the glass panel and saw a few pieces of glass just hanging onto the frame drop off and plummet to join the rest of the shards on the warehouse floor where Raphael was smashing the Kraang robots.

Leonardo had trained very hard to become a great leader, paying attention to ever lesson their master taught them, and gaining a few pointers from Captain Rayan on his favourite childhood show; _Space Heroes_. In the early stages of his leadership his brothers often disobeyed his commands and did what they wanted – particularly Raphael – but they eventually came around when they got older and believed that their brother knew exactly what to do – accept Raphael of course who still did as he pleased. The thing was that Raphael didn't understand how leading a team worked, so he continued to claim to be better suited for the role of leader despite the fact the occasions he did give it a shot failed miserably.

Then, around the same time Donatello and Michelangelo started doing what they were told, Raphael decided that leading wasn't his strong suit, but also that being lead wasn't his strong suit either, and that he would be better suited to calling his own shots. Putting his own life on the line was a lot easier and simpler than considering the lives of his brothers, and he was the only one who had to deal with the consequences. But to see his brother charging forward and attacking without thinking yet again before he had even devised a perfectly adequate plan just rubbed Leonardo a little bit more the wrong way and he knew he would have a fight on his hands later on back at the lair when he confronted Raphael about it. His plan was ruined so the only option they had left was to join their hot headed brother in open combat and hope for the best that no stray Kraang laser landed a hit.

On the ground, Raphael rammed his Sai into the Kraang robot's chests and sparks flew before the robot fell to the ground like a lead wait. The pink aliens squealed as they slithered out and dragged themselves away. If Raphael could have his way he would have skewered the pig right through the brain and ended its wretched life, but Leonardo's love of mercy and Raphael's lack of tolerance of lectures forced him to restrain his hand and allow the alien to escape. Another robot came at him but he was too fast for it. He ducked a little and the Kraang's arm went over his shoulder so he caught it in his Sais and threw the robot over his head, slamming it so hard onto the ground that the robot short-circuited and shut down. He wasn't satisfied with that so he grabbed the alien by the tentacles and hurled it across the room. It hit the wall and slid down to a slump on the ground, but still managed to scurry away, so Leonardo had no argument.

Donatello's shout for Michelangelo to get the Kraang going for the emergency button drew Raphael's attention to the fact his brothers had joined the fight. Donatello was using his Bo staff to fight off three or four robots coming at him from all directions, quickly alternating hands to smash the robots in the fact or stab them in the chest with the blade on the end. Each move was calculated and all angles considered; a very scientific slant on the usually spiritual fighting style.

Michelangelo chased after the Kraang who had made it to the big emergency button on the wall to call for reinforcements, and leaped into the air with his Nun-chucks swinging wildly. Michelangelo's style was very original and was often a mixture of Ninjitsu, comic book moves, and something random a Pelican in his dream taught him. Still it got the job done, and as he came down up on the Kraang and broke it into pieces, the alien inside realised that all too well.

Leonardo's style of fighting with his duel katana followed the teachings of Ninjitsu the most efficiently and diligently, each move mastered and each decision made by instinct rather than calculations. His wielding of the katana was a deadly dance, and the bladed extensions of his arm swept around with speed and grace as well as deadly precision. All too often had Raphael only just missed being cut by those blades, and as the katana sliced through a robot like a hot knife through warm butter, Raphael began to regret disobeying Leonardo. However, the idea of fighting Leonardo still appealed to him and the distain for everything Leonardo tried to preach only made his darker side crave the fight even more.

Raphael preferred to hit his enemies head on and beat them to death in a very – as Leonardo had said – thuggish way. But it worked ninety-nine percent of the time and Raphael was incredibly strong, so why waste his strength using tired old pretty ninja tricks when he could smash his enemies skull in with his bare hands. It wasn't what their master had taught him, but it worked and that way he didn't have to train everyday with Leonardo and his brothers to improve the skills he hardly used.

Once the battle was done and all Kraang were neutralized, the turtles surrounded the metal box. Donatello worked on the key pad to bring the metal bars down while Michelangelo began to speculate what was inside the box again.

"Ooh I know." He said suddenly. "It's a canister containing a dangerous virus that could wipe out all life on the planet." His tone betrayed the severity of the situation if it was indeed a virus that could wipe out all life on the planet.

"I seriously doubt that. The Kraang want to take over this planet, not make it a barren waste land." Donatello correctly calmly, but he was most likely doing so to reassure himself that the Kraang weren't going to kill everyone. "Done it!"

With a beep the metal bars came down and the box was exposed for anyone to take. The four turtles peered at it; the contents of the 1.5 by 1.5 meter box still a complete mystery. Was it a super weapon capable of mass destruction, a highly modified weapon for specific use, or perhaps it was indeed a virus to wipe out the human race? Michelangelo reached out and very tentatively placed his hand on the top of the grey steel as if he feared it would blow up with the slightest touch. When it did not he proceeded to touch every inch of the box, trying to find a seam to pry the thing open.

Whilst he searched Leonardo averted his attention to Raphael. Raphael knew what was coming, but he chose to meet it with more confrontation than ignoring it.

"We've talked about this." Leonardo began and Raphael groaned.

"Can we not? I've heard this lecture a million times and it's gettin' old." He muttered, rolling his eyes and folding his arms again. He averted making eye contact with Leonardo's royal blue eyes, as once ensnared there was no escape.

"You have heard this lecture a million times, so why don't you listen?" Leonardo snapped; trying to meet Raphael's gaze but the red clad turtle kept avoiding him. "Sometimes I think you do this to spite me."

"Oh right, of course!" Raphael thundered, throwing his hands in the air. "That's it! I'm the hot head you aren't able to make follow your every word like ya little solider." He towered over Leonardo, his broad shoulders dwarfing the slightly shorter turtle, but what Leonardo lacked in height and raw strength he made up for in speed and agility, making the pair an equal and deadly match in combat.

Leonardo grinned at Raphael's words and that only managed to tick the beast off even more.

"My little solider? Wouldn't that be the day that you stop thinking with your fists and use the rocks in your head to think of others for a change?" Leonardo hissed in a sinister tone, jabbing a finger into Raphael's chest; a gesture he knew was an invite for confrontation. "That is if you even have the intelligence to think instead of hammering the enemy like a single-minded monster."

If Donatello hadn't called Leonardo over to help open the metal box in that moment, Raphael would have literally snapped his brother's neck in two. He'd used _that_ word, that hated word. It was the flame to a ticking time bomb and Leonardo had used it knowing full well of the consequences. Raphael clenched his fist so tight that his knuckles blanched and grinded his teeth together. He couldn't blow up, he couldn't lash out, he had to keep calm otherwise Michelangelo and Donatello would easily be caught in the crossfire.

"Can you pull this down, Leo?" Donatello asked with a nervous grin; he knew what was going on. "Mikey and I aren't quite strong enough."

"Sure." Leonardo said and went over to help. He tried to pull down the metal and open the box but it wouldn't budge. It wasn't a crate made of wood that would easily splinter, but the metal was meant to come down and he was stronger than most humans. After a third attempt Leonardo gave up.

"It's fixed in place, there is no way that it coming down for me. Raph…"

Raphael snapped his attention to the brother he was still tempted to murder who had so blatantly called his name.

"What?" He growled; the low grumble back for a third time.

"Can you open this if you're not too busy?" He asked plainly, as if he hadn't just signed a death warrant on himself. Raphael begrudgingly stalked over and gripped the top before pulling it down.

Just as the metal began to come away there was the sound of an alarm and running footsteps coming their way. Over by the alarm, a grinning pink Kraang chuckled with his tentacle on the button. More Kraang reinforcements burst through one of the doors and spotted the turtles.

"Kraang, the ones known as _The Turtles_ are stealing what is known as _The Ultimate Weapon_ from this place to a place that is not this place."

Their familiar robotic speech pattern of stating the obvious had become an annoyance over the past few years, and the automatic response was to stop the annoyance. But more Kraang filled the room with their laser guns and it looked like a fight wasn't the best option.

"There's no time, quick, grab the box and let's get out of here." Leonardo ordered, not giving Raphael time to protest as he blocked the shots from the Kraang and signalled for his brothers to retreat. Since Raphael was the strongest he was stuck with all the heavy lifting, and the danger that came with lumbering a big metal box about while evading the Kraang's futile attempt to stop him was not a welcome one.

He heaved the box onto his shoulder and it was surprisingly light for something made of metal. Whatever was inside couldn't be whatever Michelangelo suggested, it was too light to be a big gun or machine. Dodging the lasers zipping towards him from the ever growing horde of Kraang, Raphael followed his brother's path onto the crates around the warehouse, up onto the banister and out of the broken window, heading across the rooftops back to New York City centre where the sewer entrance to their lair could be confused with many others littering the street.


	2. Prologue pt2

**Prologue pt2**

"Come on come on, let's get it open." Michelangelo squealed, jumping about Raphael as he carried the metal box into the lair's main room. His brothers had returned before him and had the nerve to complain about his pace. Instead of snapping at them and hiding the box somewhere until Donatello begged for it to be returned, he rather roughly dumped it on the rug in the centre of their designated living room area.

The lair was very specious since they used an abandoned subway platform near the old underground rail system as their home. Their living room and games room took up the majority of the space with a kitchen in a smaller room and the dojo in another. Their bedrooms were up a homemade spiral staircase onto another platform and the garage was attached to Donatello's huge science lab.

"Careful with that." Donatello warned, raking his hands through invisible hair. He was terrified that the box would explode or whatever was inside would be damaged if it wasn't handled with care. Raphael didn't really care about what happened to the weapon inside, he was tired and sore from carrying it all the way back to the lair at top speed and if it wasn't a personal back massager he couldn't be bothered to stick around to find out. He turned to stalk of to his room but his brothers stopped him doing what he wanted yet again and pleaded for him to open the box for them.

"Open it quick. I wanna see the robot!" Michelangelo insisted, running around the box like a child as Raphael yanked on the metal. It was tough but not impossible, and bit by bit the metal came away and each screw popped out of its next. Michelangelo tried to peer inside, leaning over and making it awkward for Raphael to see what he was doing. His hands were busy pulling the metal down so he head-butted Michelangelo in the back of the head and his brother quickly backed off, clutching the back of his head with a pout forming on his lips and water swelling in his eyes. Raphael rolled his eyes – he was such a baby sometimes.

"Come on Raph, get it open." Leonardo muttered, half casually half irritably. His tone certainly irritated Raphael and instead of spinning around and socking Leonardo in his smug face he yanked the last part of the metal down the contents of the metal box were revealed, however, it wasn't quite what they expected.

"It's a mutant?" Donatello gasped, falling to his knees and staring at the scaly red mutant curled up inside the box. He sounded disappointed and curious all at the same time, probably a dangerous combination for a scientist. Michelangelo; who had been sulking in the corner about his injured head, darted over and shoved Donatello out of the way so he could see better.

"It's not just a mutant." He giggled, his eyes gleaming with excitement instead of tears. "It's a dragon mutant." Raphael shook his head with despair.

"There is no such thing as a dragon, Mikey." He groaned.

"Actually he's right." Donatello said disbelievingly and all three of them looked like someone had just told them that the world was about to explode – if Michelangelo was right about something, it probably would.

"Look here Leo." Donatello said, beckoning for Leonardo to have a look. Leonardo crouched down and examined the mutant.

Michelangelo had been correct after all, the mutant did indeed resemble a dragon. It had red scales and a silver underbelly with pointed silver spikes down its back and tail as well as tiny wings and small white horns protruding from shoulder length silver hair. Its face looked relatively human with a shorter snout and jaw. Its eyes were closed and its face looked peaceful, as if it were dreaming of something sweet. Such tiny wings couldn't be used for flight and the horns were not capable of causing much damage, so blunt and stunted they could do little more than cause a bruise, Leonardo thought to himself as he examined the mutant. Its hands were human like too, accept they only had three fingers and one thumb with extraordinarily long talon like nails. The feel resembled dragon feet more, the claws on the end like the hooked blades of a Velociraptor and the dew claw looked capable of latching onto even the thickest hide.

The mutant was curled up in a foetal position, its knees tucked up to its chest and arms around them, holding its whole body in a tight little bundle. Whether it was asleep or unconscious, Leonardo didn't know, however, the mutant had been deemed _The Ultimate Weapon_ by the Kraang and locked up in a box, so waking it was not the best idea. Michelangelo ran about exclaiming loudly about dragons and how cool it would be to have a mutant dragon in their team as well as what they would call it and who would look after it, feed it, and take it for walks.

"It's _half_ dragon Mikey, not half dog. It's not a pet and we're not keeping it." Raphael grumbled, folding his arms and glaring at his immature little brother.

"But it would be awesome to have a dragon in our lair. I bet he'd like pizza, and gaming, and fighting Kraang." Michelangelo insisted, listing each thing on his hand before running out of fingers.

"He was created by the Kraang so how do we know that he isn't programed to kill us?" Raphael snapped, hiding Michelangelo over the head again.

"She." Leonardo corrected, and they stopped still in silence. "It's not a '_he_', the mutant is a girl."

Raphael was the first to dart over and see for himself.

"You serious?" He said with disbelieve. "Let me see." Raphael reached for the mutant's arm and pulled it away so he could see her chest. His eyes lit up hungrily and his brothers sighed with despair.

"Well what do you know, it is a girl. Nice rack." He muttered slyly, licking his lips as a grin spread across his face.

"Don't be gross Raph." Leonardo warned, shaking his head at his brother's inappropriate behaviour. "You wouldn't like it if someone said that about you." Raphael shrugged his shoulders.

"They wouldn't be wrong, and I wouldn't exactly complain about it." He said casually. "You can't deny I'm right. Besides, when was the last time we saw a female mutant, forgive me if instinct takes over."

Leonardo sighed and shook his head again as Raphael stood up straight again, but he couldn't deny that his brother was correct. They had never met a girl mutant before, and the only girls they personally knew were April O'Neil – currently dating their friend Casey Jones – and Karai – their master's long lost human daughter who had recently moved to Japan. Being anthropomorphic turtles living in the sewer didn't exactly invite female attention so this dragon girl was indeed quite a precious find. On top of that, Leonardo couldn't deny that she was rather attractive for a freak of nature, her body curved like an hourglass and her scales shimmering in the light.

He found himself reaching out to stroke the side of the girl's face, his hand sliding under her hair and gently cupping her face, compelled by a desire he was not familiar with. She looked so peaceful, but the moment his green skin made contact with her red scales those peaceful eyes suddenly opened wide, tropical blue with a slit of black staring directly at him for just a moment before he was propelled away from the box.

Leonardo crashed into the box of DVD's by the TV, and the crash alerted the attention of his brothers who looked over to see the dragon mutant escaping from the box.

"Stop her!" Donatello yelled, and his brothers leaped into action. The girl was nimble and quick on all fours, darting around the room like a rat and slithering across the furniture like a gecko up a wall. Her tail was not as talented and knocked things onto the floor, smashing various items and making a terrible mess. Michelangelo blocked off the exit as the girl darted towards it, and tried to catch her, but the dragon was far too quick and leaped out of range before Michelangelo's arms wrapped around her.

She charged towards the kitchen next and Donatello tried to block her path, bo staff in hand, but she leapt high into the air and latched her feet onto his shoulder before pushing off into the kitchen and forcing Donatello to the ground. Leonardo had escaped the mess of broken DVD's and ran into the kitchen to find the girl on the kitchen counter, searching through one of the cupboards. He very slowly and quietly etched towards her, but she heard him. Instead of running however, she stared at him like a rabbit in a trap, a pop tart in-between her pursed lips.

"Easy." Leonardo said calmly, holding his hands in the air so she could see he was unarmed. "I'm not going to hurt you." The girl did make a sign that she understood or didn't understand; she just stared at him like a wild animal would stare at a hunter closing in. Leonardo etched a little closer, keeping his head low and maintaining eye contact. The girl slid one leg off the counter and onto the floor so she was half perched on the surface.

"That's it." Leonardo coaxed. "Come down and we can talk." He smiled and the girl seemed to respond to it this time, sliding all the way off the counter and facing him. Her pupils changed from slits to spherical, and her countenance took on a more human one than fearful animal. Her shoulders relaxed and she started to look more timid that skittish, like a frightened girl rather than a frantic animal bent on escape.

Before Leonardo could say anything else however, Raphael burst into the kitchen with his Sai in hand, and the girl darted past them both, out of the kitchen. Leonardo cursed and chased after her as did Raphael who stormed past Leonardo, hooked the Sai back into their holsters and reached out for the girl who was climbing up the side of the spiral stairs to the bedrooms. Leonardo could hear her laboured, frantic breathe and the slight whine in the back of her throat as she scurried away. She was still more girl than dragon, that much hadn't changed at least. Just before she made it through to the top floor, Raphael managed to grasp her tail, making the girl squeak and loose her footing. She fell to the ground with a thump, but Raphael didn't let go of her tail, he did not want to have to chase her again.

The girl made pathetic noises as the other turtles hurried over, huddled on the ground but not quite able to move properly or even try to escape for that matter, although it did look she was trying to. Perhaps the fall had winded her, or broken something. Then she made a sound that resembled words but they were too quiet and too muffled to be distinct.

"What?" Raphael asked, yanking on the tail forcefully to make her speak. The girl squeaked again and looked over her shoulder at him, pink flushing her face and her eyes watering.

"L-Let go. My tail… It's sensitive." She begged, sounding like she could bust into a blubbering mess at any moment.

"Sensitive? How the fuck is it sensitive?" Raphael snapped, yanking on the girl's tail a third time and causing yet another sound. This time it was more of a moan than squeak. Then it clicked in Raphael's head and he realised the effect of clutching and yanking the tail had on the poor girl. He promptly released his grip, trying not to let the red flush his own cheeks as Leonardo pushed past him to talk to the girl.

The girl shuffled away a little, still sat on the floor with her knees tucked up and her tail curled around her, trying to make herself a smaller target with her arms clasped to her chest and her head down. Leonardo crouched down so he was at her level and smiled again, hoping it would work a second time.

"Easy there. We're not going to hurt you. What's your name?" He asked gently, trying not to evoke any more frantic behaviour. The girl looked him up and down before clearing her throat.

"Olivia." She said quietly, her eyes lingering at the swords strapped onto Leonardo's back. Leonardo noticed her looking at them and reached for them. The action startled the girl but he instantly slowed and drew them very slowly before placing them down on the ground and pushing them towards her. She quickly took them, putting one under her foot and holding the other one up in defence. She most likely didn't know how to use them, and if he needed to Leonardo could take them back with ease, but if it made her feel like she could defend herself a little better he would not take that comfort away.

"Olivia." He said sweetly. "That's a very pretty name. Latin is it?"

"Yes."

"Well my name is Italian, Leonardo, after the renascence artist."

Donatello knew what his brother was up to. Making small talk diffused the situation and made it less threatening for the poor girl who probably felt like she was surrounded by strangers and trapped somewhere alien to her. The grip on Leonardo's katana slowly loosened and she slowly relaxed, her body not quite so ridged and her eyes not quite as wild.

"These are my brothers." Leonardo explained, gesturing to the three other turtles who each gave a small wave to Olivia. "Donatello is the one with the gap in-between his teeth. Michelangelo has the freckles…" He paused before introducing Raphael, trying to calculate how he would introduce the irritable, volcanic walking time-bomb to a terrified girl.

His pause lasted a little too long and Raphael let another fuse in his system explode whilst waiting for Leonardo to say his name.

"For fucks sake Leo!" He hissed, unfolding his arms and throwing them in the air. "I'm Raphael, the ugly hot headed idiot!" His gestures were a little too sharp and a little confrontational so the girl clutched the swords tightly again and recoiled back into a tighter ball, bringing them full circle back to the beginning. Thanks Raph, Leonardo thought to himself as he rolled his eyes at the outburst before turning his attention back to the even more frightened dragon mutant.

"Sorry about him. He can be a bit aggressive sometimes but don't worry. I won't let him hurt you."

Raphael stormed away from them. His temper was rising and he personally didn't want to frighten the girl any more than he already had. It wasn't his fault that he blew up about everything Leonardo said, it was just that every word that came from his brothers lips had a patronising underlying message, or words hidden beneath the verbal ones and encoded in his tone that only Raphael could understand. In all honesty, he felt bad about scaring the girl, as well as yanking her from the stairs, and even about eyeing her up like a slice of meat when she was curled up in the box. Despite what his brothers thought, he hadn't said those things because he was a shallow guy and wanted a girl for physical reasons, he wanted… Well he didn't know what he wanted, but he certainly wasn't going to get it.

As Raphael stormed away Leonardo chose to ignore him, but Olivia's eyes couldn't be drawn away. She practically trembled with each footstep. Things weren't going to work to well if she was afraid of them. Leonardo tried to resume the conversation and draw Olivia's attention away from Raphael.

"Do you have a family?" He asked. Olivia seemed a little shocked to hear his question, as if it was stupid to ask if she had a family. Then the tears began to swell behind her eyes but she didn't let a single drop fall.

"I did have. I came to New York to study biology at the university when some strange looking men arrived and took samples of our blood for '_research_' or something." She explained, and Leonardo instantly knew the '_strange men_' were the Kraang robots in disguise. "Then those same men broke into my apartment a few weeks later and kidnapped me." She couldn't hold back the tears any longer, and a few trickled down her cheek at the memory. Her hand clasped to her mouth and she stared at the ground in front of Leonardo.

"I don't know how long I've been in their labs…" She cried, her voice getting less and less legible with each word. "I blacked out several times, all I can remember are the needles and a strange green liquid."

Leonardo's instinctive response to the tears would have been to hold the girl, coo that everything would be alright and reassure her that she would be safe with them. However, she was a complete stranger to them, deemed dangerous by the Kraang, and he couldn't rule out the possibility this was all a trap. He stayed where he was and let Olivia wipe the tears away with her wrist, the white of her eyes becoming red and bloodshot.

"The green liquid would have been mutagen." Donatello interjected, also crouching next to Leonardo. "It's unstable in this dimension and as a result it mutates any creature that comes into contact with it. But what I want to know is how they mutated you into an anthropomorphic dragon when dragons do not exist."

Olivia shrugged.

"I don't know. I never saw any dragon so I assumed that the dragon DNA was mixed in with the mutagen when they injected it."

Leonardo and Donatello looked at each other with puzzled expressions and silence fell upon the room. That was, until Michelangelo drew himself away from the sparkly object that had distracted him from the conversation.

"What? What's going on? Tell me!" Michelangelo demanded, sounding on the verge of tears himself. He hated being left out of the loop, but so far he didn't have a lot to say on the matter since he knew nothing about any of it. Olivia giggled at Michelangelo's flapping around the room and the smile on her face was surprisingly welcome to Leonardo.

"The mutations that we have seen were all quite unscientific. The green liquid would cover them and they would mutate with the last source of foreign DNA to come into contact with the being, such as a rat in an alley way." Donatello explained using _their_ master as an example. "If they injected the mutagen into your blood that would suggest they were trying to control the reactions so they obtained a desired outcome." Olivia nodded and agreed with Donatello's suggestion.

"That does sound possible." She admitted as she put the sword down – it must have been getting too heavy for her. "They kept mentioning the words _weapon_ and something about a client. I think they mutated me to the specifications of some interested buyer, like breeding a cute dog for some rich aristocrat." Michelangelo looked hopeful when Olivia referred to herself as a dog but Donatello stopped him before he could start making the dog comments again.

"They did have _DANGER_ taped around the box and it was under heavy security. But I don't quite see how you're a weapon – no offence."

"None taken. I'm pretty hopeless at everything but gaming. I must be a failed experiment or some kind of…"

Olivia was cut off by Michelangelo who had spear tackled her and wouldn't let go.

"She likes gaming she likes gaming!" He squealed, sounding like a toddler who had finally gotten exactly what they wanted at Christmas. "We have to keep her. She cannot leave. I need someone to play games with me or I'll die!" Michelangelo was getting a little bit melodramatic and Leonardo was worried that getting in Olivia's personal space and hugging her so tightly wasn't the best idea. However, Olivia didn't try to escape or even make any sound of protest; she just smiled and awkwardly patted his shell. Michelangelo looked up at her since he was hugging her waist – they were probably the same height – with an inquisitive expression.

"What platform do you play." He asked, suddenly very serious about everything.

"Xbox of course."

"Games?"

"Skyrim, the Assassins Creed series, Soul Calibur, GTA…" Olivia said as she listed them on her hand. "Any deep and meaningful or senselessly violent game really." Michelangelo, being pleased with her answer, dived on her again with a huge grin on his face.

"I love this chick." He exclaimed. The naïve turtle probably didn't realise he was in a bit of an awkward position for Olivia, and his head was probably resting against the wrong type of cushion. She didn't seem to mind, but she did blush a little so Leonardo look the liberty of removing him.

"Sorry about that." He sighed as he dragged the immature turtle off and offered his hand to Olivia. "He can get a bit carried away." To his surprise Olivia took his hand without hesitation and he pulled her to her feet.

"I don't mind." She giggled; a spark of normalcy probably returning to her – perhaps she had a little brother growing up or something. "By the way, you guys know so much about the Kraang yet I never heard about them mutating turtles when I was there."

"That's because we weren't mutated by the Kraang." Michelangelo began excitedly, ready to tell the whole story in great detail. Donatello put his hand over his brother's mouth and nodded for Leonardo to tell the story since he could probably make it simpler, respectful and not go off on a tangent.

"When we were babies we were bought from a pet shop by a man called Hamato Yoshi; a master of Ninjitsu living in New York." Leonardo began, readying himself for the painful memories to return. "However, on his way home he came across some Kraang robots exchanging a canister of mutagen in an alleyway. They spotted him and he tried to fight but the canister was broken and the mutagen spilled on us and Hamato. The rat DNA in the alley mutated him into an anthropomorphic rat while his DNA mutated us into anthropomorphic turtles. We've been living down here ever since and Hamato Yoshi; our father and sensei, trained us to become ninjas so we might be a part of the world about without causing a riot."

Olivia looked spellbound by the story, her eyes wide with awe and her ears attentive to every word.

"Whoa, you mean there have been mutants and aliens around for years?" She asked, sounding like she didn't quite believe the words herself.

"The Kraang have been around for hundreds, if not thousands of years. Many mythical creatures in human history were a result of Kraang experiments. We've spent our lives trying to stop the Kraang from experimenting and ruining more lives."

Olivia's eyes moved to the ground and the happiness, awe and curiosity was taken over by only sadness.

"Speaking of ruined lives," she said meekly, "what am I going to do with mine?" There was no escaping the fact that her life was indeed ruined by her mutation, and any family she had would not accept her back if she returned to them looking like she did.

Leonardo thought hard about what to do about the problem, he had been thinking about a possible solution for a while but hadn't quite worked out all the kinks yet. Olivia couldn't return to her apartment and university, nor could she go back to her family, and it wasn't like they could just leave her to fend for herself in the city like many of the other rogue mutants did. There was only one option, one that Leonardo knew his master would not approve of if he were around to object.

"If you like, you could stay with us." He suggested, and both Donatello and Michelangelo gasped at their brother's suggestion.

"Are you being serious?" Donatello exclaimed, brown eyes wide with disbelief. It wasn't that he didn't like Olivia or minded if she stayed with them, it was only that Leonardo was so traditional and serious all the time, the very thought that he might allow a girl – a stranger at that – to live with them was completely incomprehensible.

"Aw awesome!" Michelangelo exclaimed, spear tackling Olivia again but not making them fall.

"R-Really?" Olivia stuttered, the words a strange taste on her tongue. She was so shocked that the turtle hugging her waist seemed invisible, everything did.

Leonardo smiled at her and nodded.

"Yes." He replied. "If you want to stay with us you can for as long or as short as you like, even permanently if the idea of living with four mutant turtles is okay with you." Olivia's eyes began to water, but she did not let them form into tears again. A beautiful smile lit up her face and she nodded.

"I would like that. I'm pretty useless at cooking and cleaning but I'll try to contribute if it helps. Thankyou. Thankyou so much."


	3. Chapter 1

**Dragon in a box: Chapter 1**

"_…__and my name ain't dick so keep it outta your mouth. U N to th D, let it be known we do this shit on daily. U N to th D, no thanks still serving you baby._ Yeah!" Michelangelo ended the rap song with his arms folded and a smug grin on his face, the cap on his head pulled down low and a plastic gold dollar chain around his neck. Olivia clapped and smirked herself at the turtles expert rapping skills, but she was mainly impressed by the fact that the sweet and childish Michelangelo knew the lyrics to such a song.

"Thankyou, thankyou, you're took kind." Michelangelo said as he bowed to an imaginary audience.

"Not bad Mikey not bad." She said as she rose from her seat on the floor. "Now it's my turn."

Michelangelo put the cap – termed the _rap cap_ – on Olivia's head and went over to the iPod to change the track. He swirled his finger around the white pad until he found his challenge song for Olivia and pressed the play button with a mischievous smirk on his face.  
"Sing this one really loudly okay." He chortled, evil intentions behind his every word. Olivia didn't quite know what the prankster had in mind but she agreed anyway.

"_This one is for the boys with the booming system. Top down, AC with the cooling system. When he come up in the club, he be blazin' up. Got stacks on deck like he savin' up…"_

There was a sudden flurry of feet that sounded like a stampede and the doors burst inwards as Donatello, Raphael, and Leonardo scrambled for the iPod to stop the song.

"Hey, I was rapping to that you know." Olivia grumbled, folding her arms and tapping her foot impatiently as the three turtles got up with the switched off iPod in Leonardo's hands.

"We know. But perhaps you should rap to something a little less Nikki Minaj." Donatello suggested as kindly as he could despite hating the song with a burning passion.

"I don't like her either, but Mikey took all the rap songs I knew the lyrics too."

"Just sing somethin' other than that lode of shit." Raphael spat as he tried to resist the urge to crush the iPod with his bare hands.

In the year that Olivia had been with them she had learned a lot about the turtles, especially Mr Temper Tantrum in red. A particular fact about Raphael that came in handy when living with them was that a lot of his threats were empty ones and nine out of ten times were made to intimidate rather than warn despite the fact they sounded deadly serious. Her fear of Raphael had faded and Olivia found that annoying him was actually one of life's greatest joys.

"Fine then." She said with a pout. "I'll just sing a different song."

"By all means please do."

Raphael turned to leave and return to his weight lifting, as did Donatello to his lab and Leonardo to his meditation.

"Let's see, what should I sing?" Olivia asked out loud to everyone and no one in particular as she selected a song on the iPod. "Oh I know." She plugged the iPod back into the speaker system and pressed the play button. Michelangelo grinned expectantly; he knew what song she had chosen.

"_Let it go. Let it go…_" She began, pretending to summon spirals of ice in her hands as she attempted to mimic the Disney character.

"No!" The three anti-Frozen turtles yelled in unison and snatched the iPod from the dock, muting Olivia's turn to sing yet again.

With her arms folded across her large chest Olivia narrowed her eyes at them. Leonardo and Donatello grinned nervously as flames practically flared up inside Olivia's aquatic blue eyes – quite a contrast with her red scales and fiery personality. The other person with a fiery – or rather, volcanic – personality ignored the death glares and started to walk off with the iPod in his dark green hand. Olivia chased after him before he even took two steps and tried to snatch the iPod back.

"If you have such a problem with _that_ song then you should have left it on the first one!" Olivia barked as she tried to pry Raphael's hand open and release her iPod. Raphael kept his hand closed and Olivia's efforts remained in vein. Someone who bench pressed 425 pounds every afternoon was not going to be beaten by a girl who struggled to pick up a brick. As she heaved and grunted, Raphael couldn't help but chuckle at her efforts. The chuckling only managed to irritate Olivia, so in a desperate attempt to put a stop to it and possibly free her iPod she opened her mouth as wide as possible and bit Raphael's wrist.

Olivia's teeth were not something to be messed with. Like a crocodiles jaws they clamped down on the flesh and bone, causing a sharp and rather agonizing pain to shoot up and down Raphael's arm, forcing his hand to open of its own accord. The iPod dropped to the floor and thankfully bounced because of its thick rubber casing, while its cage twitched.

"Gah! You little…"

Surprisingly Raphael managed to hold back a roar and force his other hand to grab onto one of Olivia's horns to yank her off. Like an angry guard dog she did not release her hold so Raphael had to pull on the horn. With any luck he might just pull it off.

To her credit, Olivia did hold on whilst her feet left the ground and her victim lifted her into the air, but the pain was equal to being picked up by the ears. She knew that her horns wouldn't come off, they were a part of her skull and made of bone, but they felt like they would. She could practically feel flesh pulling away from her head as the two separated, giving her startling flashbacks of a movie she once watched about cave diving. As Raphael pulled more it was beginning to feel like her teeth would come out if Raphael didn't stop pulling on her horns, or her horns would come out if she didn't let go of his wrist.

For the greater good she unlatched her teeth and the strain on them stopped, leaving a dull funny feeling. Perhaps they had moved a few millimetres forward or something. Now that her teeth weren't tearing on his flesh, Raphael was able to lift the little red dragon higher up until he held her at arm's length. Olivia kicked her legs and thrashed about yelling "_let me go_".

"Le'me go. Le'me go," Raphael sang – his voice horribly out of tune. "Yeah that has a nice ring to it." He smirked quite evilly at Olivia's misfortune. He was actually quite enjoying it despite the pain in his wrist.

"Come on Raph, she's learnt her lesson already." Leonardo suggested, moving next to Raphael so he was almost like the voice of reason in his ear. Raphael never listened to the voice of reason, but he didn't like being lectured by it either so he begrudgingly let go.

Olivia fell to the floor with a light thud and clutched at her horns. Once she was satisfied that they were still firmly attached she sprung from the floor, slammed into Raphael's torso and knocked him to the ground. Before Raphael had a chance to react, Olivia rolled into a handstand and pushed off the ground, landing a few feet away from him with a wild grin on her flushed face.

When Raphael saw the grin his eyes narrowed in on her. Anticipating the response, Olivia dodged his first lunge, and then the second, and narrowly avoided the third. It wasn't until Raphael was about to grab a fist full of silvery hair that the others stepped in and stopped him from making a big mistake. Olivia giggled and poked her tongue out at Raphael from behind the wall of turtles, which of course only managed to anger him more. Was it really anger though? He seemed to find some sort of joy in the chase, a small smile revealing itself once or twice when no one was looking and shred of humour in his voice rather than one hundred percent rage. Perhaps if no one else was about to irritate him then he'd act like it was a game rather than disgusting his amusement with irritation.

As Olivia pondered when she'd next wind him up to find out for herself, Donatello tried to calm Raphael down – being the only person who didn't irritate Raphael on a regular basis. Leonardo turned to Olivia but said nothing, instead he looked to Michelangelo.

"Perhaps you should do something else for the time being." He suggested, the iPod clearly out of the picture. Michelangelo grumbled and folded his arms.

"What are we supposed to do, finger-paint?" He snapped rather sarcastically, but then an idea hit him. "Ooh, I know, how about we all do something together as a family?"

"Hey, you sick of me already?" Olivia exclaimed, her eyes narrowing in on Michelangelo who cowered behind his eldest brother. An angry Olivia was much more terrifying than an angry Raphael, they all could agree on that.

"I-I didn't mean it like that." He stuttered as Olivia stalked forward to introduce her fist to his ribs. "You're a part of this family too."

"I am?" Olivia gasped, just as Leonardo blatantly said, "She's not."

Olivia shot him a startled glare. Never had she imagined such words to come from Leonardo's mouth, Raphael for sure, but the kind and mild-tempered Leonardo? He must have realised the misunderstanding because Leonardo was quick to hold his hands up in innocence.

"I didn't mean you weren't a part of the family." He said quickly before Olivia had the chance to do anything to him. "Well, I did, but not in that way. You certainly come under the bracket but personally I don't consider you a sister. Do you get what I mean?"

It took her a short while to decipher to convoluted message, but Michelangelo came to a conclusion before Olivia did.

"Oh I get it." He said with a smirk, sounding quite proud of himself.

"What? Explain!" Olivia demanded, slightly irritated that everyone seemed to know what Leonardo was talking about accept her. Michelangelo's grin spread to Cheshire cat proportions and he couldn't help but chuckle a little at the things racing through his head.

"If you were our sister it would be incest." He snickered. Donatello turned around and hurried off to his lab so he didn't have to face the aftermath and Leonardo almost went red.

Again it took Olivia a moment or two to figure out what he meant by that. Naturally she came to a conclusion much faster and punched Michelangelo in the shoulder, hard. Leonardo laughed and Donatello's faint laughter could be heard from the other room as Michelangelo nursed his bruise and pouted.

"You guys are pervs." She snapped, spinning on her heel and folding her arms. She wasn't totally surprised by the idea that the turtles were _interested_ in her. It was too expected from four young guys living in the same space with a limited number of female friends and a tendency to scare any girl who wasn't also a freak, but they could at least be subtle about it and not make her feel like a piece of meat. The very thought of being seen as a piece of ass just rubbed her scales the wrong way.

"Anyway..." Leonardo began, changing the subject as he felt the tension rise from the pouting red dragon. "I think Mikey has a point. We should do something together. All of us." He added just as Olivia shot him another glare.

"Aw yes!" Michelangelo shouted, punching the air in a rock star pose. "Surface time! I vote skateboarding." Olivia looked to Leonardo but the blue clad turtle shook his head despondently. Olivia's shoulders sagged, as did Michelangelo's, Leonardo never let them have any fun, or if he did, there was always a catch.

"I have an idea, but it doesn't involve acting like an idiot and getting into trouble." He announced, looking over at Michelangelo, who was whistling and look around the room vaguely as his older brother spoke.

As Leonardo informed the other two turtles about the days change of plan Michelangelo and Olivia tried to figure out what '_Splinter Junior_' had in store for them. They both new that it would not be as fun as skateboarding across rooftops, but it wouldn't be a total bore either right?

"I bet he'll make us train or something. You know, like King of the Mountain." Michelangelo speculated, referring to a training game they used to play when they were teenagers where three of the turtles had to get past the fourth using their ninjitsu skills. Olivia doubted that would be the case since Leonardo had refused to teach her ninjitsu.

"No, he wouldn't chose that one since _I_ can't do it. But I don't think he knows how to play any other games."

Michelangelo laughed and slapped Olivia on the back, a friendly gesture that really made Olivia feel like a part of their family, but not as a sister of course, she had her naughty thoughts and desires too.

Whilst Leonardo struggled to convince Raphael to leave his weights and join them, Olivia scoped the room and all the possible candidates within it. Michelangelo was certainly the turtle she was closest to. He was like a best friend, always ready to do something or joke about, and even comfort her when she needed it. He was quite good looking too – for a turtle-human hybrid at least – with a lean, flexible body, strong muscles and the cutest freckles imaginable just peeping out from under his orange mask. His eyes were big and blue, not unlike hers, and could spell out innocence just as easily as they spelt out mischief.

He was a bit of an idiot though, no arguing that fact as he often suggested stupid things and got carried away with his pranks, and since he was like her best friend he also leant himself to being like a brother to her – no incest considered – and that firmly removed him from the list.

Next in the line up was Donatello, the third eldest and probably the only turtle she could geek-out with. Surprisingly Olivia wasn't as dumb as she acted – although Raphael would certainly disagree with that idea – and quite enjoyed science, particularly biology. Learning how living creatures worked and how organisms evolved from specks to dinosaurs fascinated her, and since Donatello was the only other person around who could actually hold a conversation with her about the process of photosynthesis he made the perfect geek-out buddy.

As the purple clad turtle organised his duffle bag – the damn thing went with him everywhere – Olivia studied him very carefully, like a scientist studying bacteria under a microscope. He was quite tall, about the same height as Leonardo – if not taller – but very lanky. His arms and legs were long and gangly and his fingers were actually quite gangly too. His face was quite long compared to the others too, but he had quite large eyes that were practically magnified behind the glasses he often wore and quite a wide smile with a gap in-between his front teeth. '_Nerdy_' was probably the best way to describe his look, but that didn't necessarily mean he wasn't cute. Also, his over enthusiasm for science and tendency to forget that someone else was around and totally nerd out was quite a charming attribute.

However, when Olivia first started living with them he had pretty much shut himself away and hidden from her. Considering he had three relatively rowdy brothers and fought crime on a regular basis he was quite reserved and reclusive. He seemed to be really uncomfortable around girls, the reason for that Olivia had no idea, and the first time he actually held a conversation with her was when they locked themselves in a basement by accident. Timid was not a favoured personality trait so Olivia didn't hesitate to knock him off the list too, she was a little too outgoing to deal with timid.

Leonardo was certainly her favourite, Olivia decided as she listened to him lecture Raphael about isolating himself from his family and all that jazz. He was tall and lean with a very athletic built fit for running for miles as well as dealing sever damage in combat, a true ninja's frame. His slightly tortoise-green skin clashed beautifully with his deep blue eyes that on rare occasions seemed to have flakes of sky blue in them, like ice crystals in cold water. Personality wise he seemed quite blank from a first glance, very studious and stern with no interest in anything other than training. But beneath the surface he was very sweet and considerate, even slightly cheeky when he wanted to be, and always the gentlemen.

Olivia found herself staring at him, gazing adoringly at the handsome freak that probably made the top of her list. She couldn't quite drag her eyes away from him, but a flash of red and a burning glare snapped her attention to the last person on her list – and probably the one at the very bottom.

Raphael, the most irritating and frustrating person Olivia ever had the misfortune of meeting, but also the most fun to mess with and probably the person she understood the least despite the fact he came across as the most simple. He got angry about everything, blew up about everything, and broke everything in his path like a rampaging bull. On the rare occasions he was able to restrain his anger and not lash out against those around him, he would glare at the '_irritator_' in question until they felt like melting into a puddle and washing away in a desperate attempt at escape. Not only was he short-tempered, but he also had a massive ego and felt the need to chip-out anyone and everyone the moment the opportunity arose.

"Fine, I'll go!" Raphael snapped, snapping Olivia back into the current affairs. "But if ya' try to make me do some fuckin' meditation on the roof, I'm gonna kill ya'." He pushed past Leonardo and almost knocked Olivia over as he stormed towards the garage. He was huge compared to the others, compared to everyone really. He was built like a tank with broad shoulders and torso, taller than Leonardo and Donatello but he had pad posture so he appeared to be same height.

He was quite intimidating when he towered over someone, usually glaring – his neutral face expression – which could never be considered appealing as he wasn't remotely good looking – even for a turtle. He had an under bite, unusually large canines, a slightly larger and more turned up nose than his brothers and a permanent scowl across his face. Even his eyes seemed angry, the toxic green practically radioactive when he rampaged and smashed everything in sight like a terrapin hulk. Sadly all of those '_desirable_' qualities couldn't quite convince Olivia to put him back on the list, a real shame – not.

"We goin' or what?" The said turtle complained, standing by the door and tapping his foot impatiently. First he had argued against going, and now he was irritated that they weren't leaving soon enough. Olivia shook her head and followed the others to the Shellraiser, she would never understand that guy, not completely. Perhaps she'd get the chance one day to see a side to him that wasn't just anger and ego, the side that occasionally showed itself but never for more than a moment before the angry beast took a hold of the reins once more.


	4. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Olivia could have easily been an open window the way the wind blew through and chilled her to the bone. Reptiles were ectothermic; they needed the heat of the sun to function, how were the turtles unfazed. Sure they were probably endothermic since they were half human, but the reptile side of them had to find it difficult to deal with. Olivia felt rather pathetic as she shivered on the roof, the perfectly comfortable and unfazed turtles beside her as Leonardo explained what they were going to do. It was late, somewhere around eleven or midnight, but the cars were still moving at a snail's pace down the endless roads, a trail of yellow dots heading one way and a trail of demon eyes heading in the other. New York never rested, never slept, but noticing freaks on the roof tops was a lot harder at night time so the turtles – and Olivia – had become nocturnal to take full advantage of this fact.

"Why is it so cold?" Olivia whined, a shiver working its way around her body, practically raising Goosebumps on her scales. She frantically rubbed her arms up and down to warm up, but another shiver arrived with another breeze and sent her back to stage one again. Michelangelo giggled at her complaining as Donatello offered Olivia a scarf from his duffle bag, which Olivia of course snatched out of his hand and tied it around her neck to try and retain _some_ warmth. Raphael rolled his eyes and grumbled "weakling" to himself.

Ignoring her complaints, Leonardo continued.

"...so that's what we're going to do. Any questions?"

"I have one!" Olivia called, raising her arm in the air and waving it about like an eager student wanting to be picked by the teacher. "What are we doing again, I wasn't listening." Raphael groaned and turned around so his back was to Olivia, probably counting to eleven to stop himself from raging at her.

"Hide and seek." He said very calmly, but there was defiantly a tiny hint of irritation hidden behind his tone.

"What! No fair. You guys are trained ninja's who can disappear into the shadows at a moment's notice. My best hiding spot is behind a curtain, and I don't see any curtains about." She protested before quickly scouting the area for any curtains just in case.

"It's a training exercise, in both detection and hiding skills." Leonardo began, repeating his words again.

"And?"

"And there's no reward in finding the easy target so ya' won't be found straight away." Raphael taunted, interrupting Leonardo just before his brother answered again. As a result, Leonardo glared at his hot-head brother, and Raphael just shrugged his shoulders at Leonardo's irritation.

Olivia wasn't shrugging any shoulders, or glaring for that matter, she was full on ready to slash at Raphael with her claws and add a new collection of tears to his tattered mask. Noticing her intentions before she had time to act, Michelangelo grabbed Olivia and held her back from Raphael just as she made a move to lunge. Kicking and protesting against the restrains, Olivia was dragged a few feet away from Raphael and placed next to Leonardo for her own safety. Now there were two eyes glaring at Raphael from the same direction, not that it bothered Raphael any more than usual, or at least he didn't show that it did. A slight sag of the shoulders and drop of the head would be enough to tell them otherwise, but he remained vigilant.

"Since you're so adamant about your own skill Raph, how about you go first." Leonardo suggested, raising one brow in a cocky gesture that he knew would rub Raphael to wrong way. As he expected, his brother's expression quickly turned from slightly irritated to full on insulted. Instead of throwing a fit though, Raphael turned his back to them – again – and started counting down from sixty.

With a flurry of nervous excitement, Michelangelo hurried off, jumping from roof to roof in the search for a perfect hiding spot at top speed. Donatello looked to Olivia and quietly wished her good luck before also darting off, only he went down into an alleyway to find the hiding spot instead. Olivia saw them train often, but seeing them out in their element was something to behold. They moved faster than the eye could follow, and seemed to become a part of their surroundings, only appearing when the moonlight caught them at the right angle. Standing there bewildered, Olivia suddenly realised that Raphael was down to fifty already and she hadn't even made a move.

A hand took a hold of hers, three fingers intertwining with her four before yanking her away. She found her feet thankfully, and found herself holding Leonardo's hand as they ran across the roof away from Raphael. The blue clad turtle glanced over his shoulder and smiled sweetly at Olivia who was practically being dragged by him. The smile was very sweet actually, almost serene, but not in a famine way. It made him look a lot younger than he was, and a lot less serious. It was a smile you could look at all day.

Olivia found herself going red upon realisation that she was staring at him – not really a surprise since she was always red. Thankfully, Leonardo had turned his attention back to where he was dragging her and not recoiling away from the strange, zoned out girl. Mentally Olivia kicked herself, she needed to stop doing that, but it wasn't like she could help being a teenage girl. Leonardo's position on the list was seriously coming into play though as his hand tightened in hers. Why was he doing that? Did he feel a connection or something? Was he perhaps picking up on her possible feelings towards him?

Before Olivia could imagine any more elaborate reasons for the sudden tightening, she found herself being dragged up and off the ground. It then occurred to her that Leonardo had shouted "_jump_" and they were currently in the air between two buildings. A scream escaped her lips but it was taken away by her sudden decent and silenced completely when she crashed onto the roof of the next building. Leonardo had let go of her hand and landed quite skilfully while Olivia slid across the concrete to a painful halt. Lucky for her scales didn't tear or bruise easily, but she still felt like her chest and stomach had just gone toe-to-toe with a sanding machine.

"You alright?" Leonardo asked as Olivia got to her hands and knees.

"Yeah I'm fine!" She lied bitterly, managed to get her legs beneath her to stand up properly. Leonardo offered her his hand and she took it without question – a girl couldn't refuse the help of a dashing mutant turtle now could she. Unfortunately, she managed to destroy the chivalrous gesture by tripping over her own feet and crashing into Leonardo.

Thankfully, he didn't fall, although if he had fallen then she would have gone with him and ended up on top of him – not the most hated of places to be. However, she did find herself pressed into his torso, the hard chest plate surprisingly comfortable despite her whole body going a few degrees hotter because of it. '_This is rather intimate'_, Olivia thought, '_and he isn't pulling away'._ Then again, neither was she.

"You okay there?" Leonardo asked, breaking Olivia's train of thought again and snapping her back into reality. Horrified, she realised that he wasn't pulling away because she was practically stuck to him like glue, and that made her leap backwards as if Leonardo was the most repulsive thing she had ever seen. Yet again her feet betrayed her and she landed on her butt rather than her feet.

"I think we need to work on your abilities." Leonardo suggested with a slight laugh, grabbing Olivia's hand again and pulling her up again. This time she didn't fall into him – thank God.

"I'd be amazing if you let me learn ninjitsu." Olivia grumbled to herself, but unfortunately Leonardo heard it.

"I don't think you're ready for ninjitsu training yet. You might hurt yourself."

"So, I hurt myself all the time." She exclaimed, not realising that she had actually yelled that part. "It's all the genetic mutation rubbish that makes my life so difficult."

In the past year Donatello had run some tests on Olivia to work out exactly how and why she was created, and more importantly, what it was that made her the _ultimate weapon_. So far the _ultimate weapon_ part hadn't been discovered, a part from horns and sharp nails she didn't really have much in the way of weaponry, and her wings were too small to even use for flight. What they _had_ discovered though was her mutation was very different to the other mutations they had seen.

While most other mutants were mutated by accident, the mutagen usually spilled or fallen into, Olivia had been mutated very slowly and carefully, chromosome by chromosome. Going of news reports of a '_missing girl_' they estimated that she had undergone the mutation over the period of two years, most of which Olivia had not experienced due to how sketchy her memory was and the possibility of an induced coma. Since her mutation was so perfect and complete there was no possibility that the retro-mutagen – a very hard to refine solution – would turn her back.

A side effect of her perfect mutation however, was a natural ability for speed, agility, flexibility and on some occasion's super-strength. As a human she had been quite the inactive soul, but since her mutation she had suddenly found herself capable of a number of things she couldn't originally do. Unfortunately, those things usually just '_happened_' by accident without her brain actually telling them to do it, resulting in her suddenly being able to backflip away from danger but stack the landing. Hence the constant tripping, although that could have just been because of her large dragon feet.

Leonardo gave her a sympathetic look but it was soon replaced with concern as he looked over her shoulder.

"What?" Olivia asked, glancing behind as well.

"I think Raph has stopped counting. We better move." He said, and without warning he darted off. "Try to keep up!" Muttering profanities in protest Olivia scrambled to shift into gear and start running. Leonardo was already at the next building and leaped over the gap effortlessly. Olivia wasn't nearly running fast enough to make it, and the lack of a sports bra – any bra really since she didn't wear clothes anymore – didn't help. There was only one thing for it, the only way she seemed able to run as a mutant, even if it meant embarrassment.

Olivia managed to catch Leonardo up in no time at all once she put aside her pride and sprinted on all fours, her talons digging in to give her more grip, and powerful legs giving her the momentum she needed to get across the gaps. Leonardo couldn't help but grin to himself as Olivia caught up and ran alongside him, her eyes firmly positioned on what was ahead. She didn't have much time to think on what to do if an obstacle came up since she was running so fast, she had to think on the spot. It had taken Leonardo years of training to work like that, to act without thinking, and that was under the guidance of a ninjitsu master. Perhaps Olivia was ready to learn ninjitsu, but was he ready to teach her?

His father – Splinter – had taught him all he knew about ninjitsu and being a leader, but he never taught him how to be a teacher, not before the _accident_. Shaking that memory from his head he scanned the area for an appropriate area to hide. The game wasn't really about improving their skills; personally he'd rather be back at the lair meditating, but an excuse for him to talk to Olivia _alone_.

If he tried to talk to her with his brothers about they would eavesdrop on the conversation and then torment him afterwards, taking anything he said and putting it in a completely different context just to mess with him. It wasn't like he was going to confess his undying love for her or anything like that, just talk about random things like _normal_ people did. They were certainly not normal, nor would they ever be, but Leonardo didn't feel like he could relax in the lair, not anymore. When their father was about he could be relax and act the way he wanted to act pretty much whenever they weren't training, but since those days had past he felt the need to act as his father had, reserved and distanced from everyone else in deep meditation. Someone had to fill that role; someone had to take over the role of sensei as well as leader, even if that meant becoming someone else to do so.

"Over here." Leonardo said quickly before darting to the side. Olivia hadn't expected the sudden change in direction and ended up skidding to a stop before running over on two legs, the speed and agility lost. There was a small maintenance room with an unlocked door – a rare and valuable find in the ninja game of hide and seek – and when Leonardo opened it they could see there was actually quite a bit of space inside.

"This'll do right?" He said, scanning the room for anything that could prove to be a danger – a habit of his.

"How did you spot this?" Olivia gasped, sticking her head inside the room. "We past hundreds of these and you spotted the only one that wasn't locked." Olivia did not know it, but that little comment actually gave Leonardo a well-needed ego boost. An appreciative smile made its way across his face, but he disguised it when Olivia looked his way.

They shut the door behind them and sat in the dark of the maintenance room before they finally found the light switch. One of the side walls had three shelves on it with various maintenance products on it, a broom, mop and bucket in the corner, a kitten poster on the back wall and a few boxes stacked up out of the way. The only light was a cord hanging from the ceiling with a yellow bulb on the end.

"Do you reckon he'll find us?" Olivia asked, tucking her knees up to her chest as she sat against the door.

"He'll be too busy trying _not_ to find us because of what he said before." Leonardo explained, folding his arms and leaning against the back wall. "My bet is he'll go for Mikey – the reigning champion at hide and seek – and that should take a while." Olivia pursed her lips into a mulish line, appearing to be deep in thought.

"So what do we do in the meantime?" She pondered as she stared at a spot on the floor.

"Talk I guess." Leonardo suggested, shrugging his shoulders, it was what he had planned to do, but the difficult thing was what do they talk about? He couldn't just begin the conversation with 'I'm not as boring as I make out to be'.

"Okay…" Olivia mumbled, glaring now at the spot on the floor as she wrapped her brain for a topic. Then Leonardo came up with an idea.

"Tell me about yourself _before_ your mutation, the human Olivia."

Olivia looked a little surprised at his request, but not reluctant. No one really asked Olivia about her past, that Leonardo knew for a fact. They were all afraid that it would bring back bad memories as it had in the first few months of her living with them. But a year had passed and the pain seemed to have faded as she frequently referenced her old friends or things that she did as a child.

Olivia lifted her gaze and looked at Leonardo, making eye contact through the gloomy yellow.

"Why do you want to know about that?" She asked, tilting her head to the side, an inquisitive gesture. Leonardo shifted his weight to the other foot.

"I want to know more about you." He confessed, giving her a light and friendly smile. That smile seemed to lighten Olivia's expression and he could have sworn there was a slight hint of pink on her ruby cheeks. A sweet and lovely smile emerged on Olivia's face, her eyes practically sparkling.

"Alright then."

Olivia began from the beginning, about how she was an only child and how her family used to move house a lot, about attending six different schools and having to make new friends each time.

"It was really hard sometimes because I'd make friends with people who weren't that great and only realise who my best friends were when it was time to move on." Olivia sighed, tilting her head back and staring at the ceiling. "Then there were the best friends that I found in the beginning but lost part way through my stay and had to watch fade into a shadow of their former selves." Now that got Leonardo's attention.

"What do you mean?" He asked, sliding down the wall so he was sat too. He was beginning to relax a little, not on guard anymore like before but listening completely. They were in a maintenance room, not exactly the most targeted location in the world, he could chill.

Olivia fidgeted a little, glancing around the room and looking very uncomfortable, but before Leonardo could retract his question she begrudgingly explained.

"I had this friend." She began with a heavy sigh. "A really close friend, and I mean _really _close – without being intimate of course. I told him everything, all my thoughts and feelings, all my secrets and hopes and dreams. I even told him some private things that I couldn't even tell my parents about."

"And did he keep them secret?" Leonardo asked, suspected a possibly pathway for this story.

"Yeah!" Olivia said, almost sounding surprised herself. "He did. In return he told me everything about him too, all the problems he was having with his health and family – his brother was a bit of a little prick and made their mum's life a living hell."

"So what went wrong?"

Olivia traced a random shape on the floor a few seconds and continued to do so as she spoke.

"In retrospect our relationship was a little messy and, well, typically teenage. He had a girlfriend and I had a boyfriend at the same time. I broke up with my boyfriend and then he broke up with his girlfriend, then I got a new boyfriend and he got a new girlfriend whom he seemed to break up with and get back together with at least once a month. I got really jealous of her because I felt like she was taking him away from me. I ended up saying really horrible things to her and getting all torn up about everything, even when I had no right to, and she was never mean back but just accepted it. After quite some time into the relationship I had at that point of time I realised that I was in love with my best friend and everything I seemed to do was an indirect attempt to break them up."

"Whoa," Leonardo gasped, trying to get all the information straight in his head. "That sounds really messed up."

"It gets better don't worry." Olivia chuckled with a cheeky grin, but there was sorrow behind that grin.

"I eventually broke up with my boyfriend and he eventually broke up with his girlfriend for more than a few days. I waited patiently for the rebound stage to pass so I could ask him out. He already knew that I liked him that way, had done for a while, we'd even had conversations about it while he was still with his girlfriend. Then, after ages of waiting, we came to the mutual decision that we should date…"

Her voice trailed off, as if the next part was something she really didn't want to explain, but the conversation had gone too far to turn back now.

"I'm guessing it wasn't the happy ending you had been waiting for?" Leonardo guessed, and his speculation confirmed when Olivia nodded her head.

"He cheated on me after two days with another girl and we broke up." She said quickly, the words out of her mouth at supersonic speed as if they were a heavy burden. "But I didn't hate him for it, our relationship had felt wrong anyway and I didn't feel comfortable around him anymore. It's kind of sad really, I cried for hours in his arms about it."

"Please tell me that's the end of it?" Leonardo begged, clapping his hands together as if to beg.

"Sorry, I guess I'm going on a bit aren't I?"

"What no?" Leonardo said quickly, shaking his head violently as if it would take back his words. "I didn't mean it like that. I'm interested, it just seems like such a horrible affair that I want it to be other for _your_ sake, but I'm guessing it's not is it?"

"Sadly no. It gets worse."

Olivia continued to explain how she felt sick every time she saw her best friend with his new girlfriend – the girl he cheated on her with – and how she tried to not let it bother her. All the while, Leonardo couldn't help but feel the urge to pull her towards him and hold her close, to tell her she would never have to worry about that happening to her again and how _he_ would never do something like that. It took him a moment to realise what he was thinking, had he really just acknowledged his feelings for her.

The idea had crossed his mind, heck; it had probably crossed everyone's mind. Olivia was quite beautiful, even as a mutant he was sure that a few humans would find her attractive. As if her curves and pretty blue eyes weren't enough, her scales were the most marvellous ruby red, and her hair like the silvery moon. Four dark freckles under her eyes decreasing in size as they reached the bridge of her nose and the same four freckles on her shoulders and thighs seemed to give her a cheeky quality, also aided by her tiny horns and wings that made her appear more like an innocent baby dragon than the monsters of legend. She _was_ cheeky too; very witty and funny, as well as sweet, compassionate, innocent in her own way and creative.

If her appearance and incredibly enchanting personality weren't enough to convince him or his brothers to feel _something_ towards her, the fact that she was practically the only female mutant in their life certainly would. Leonardo didn't doubt that his brothers felt the same way he did – okay okay, so he was admitting that he liked her that way – but he didn't imagine they would be much competition for him. Michelangelo and Olivia got on really well but he was too much like a kid brother to be anything more to her, and Donatello was so awkward around her there was no way _that_ could go anywhere. Raphael was certainly not competition, the guy was so angry all the time and all he seemed to do with Olivia was try to kill her. They fought almost every day and the little incident before they had come out was evidence enough of their incompatibility. Competition aside, Leonardo could never forget that day when they first met. How he had calmed her and offered her a home. How she had looked in his eyes and that spark he'd experienced when looking back into hers. He was almost inclined to believe it was fate.

"There was a ball coming up, our final year ball and he had promised to go with me since forever." Olivia continued, and Leonardo returned to the conversation at hand. "But a few weeks before the ball he asked me if we could go as a three; me, him, and his girlfriend of three weeks."

"That's _really_ unreasonable." Leonardo added, raising an eyebrow – or what would have been an eyebrow if he had hair. Olivia snorted with amusement.

"You're telling me, and he'd left the school at this point in time because of his bad attendance so it wasn't like he could really pick and choose who he went with. Anyway, I got really angry at him when he wouldn't take _no_ for an answer, so I asked a friend from work and went with him instead – I checked that my friend was available first so I didn't end up alone of course."

"That sounds like it would be a really awkward evening."

"It was an amazing evening. I kept losing my date in the mosh pit – well, circle really – but he kept coming back and we'd do some random dance together. He was so silly…"

Olivia was laughing now at the memory, describing the evening and all of her friend's dresses as well as two boys she thought would make a cute couple. Leonardo tried to imagine Olivia at a ball, dressed in something extravagant and classy whilst trying to dance to pop music in a mosh pit. Sadly he couldn't seem to imagine a human Olivia so she stood out a bit, but that didn't matter, she was loving the attention and really getting into the song – thankfully it wasn't _Let it go._"

"So what happened next?" Leonardo asked, hating that he had to bring the conversation away from the ball; it seemed like a much happier memory for her to talk about.

"Well, he never went to the ball in the end. His girlfriend had no plans to take him to the ball – didn't even know about the conversation we had about him taking us both – and they actually broke up before the ball night. So he ended up getting back together with his ex and that went on and off a few times before she finally dumped his ass for good. After that I never really saw him again, not really, not my best friend. I saw him walking about town sometimes, slowly hunching over some more and growing more facial hair with each passing day, eventually looking like a pasty, emotion wreck I couldn't even recognize. I wanted to help him, I really did. I wanted to hold him and tell him it would all be alright and forgive him for everything he did, but I stopped myself. I knew that if I did I would be no better than his girlfriend, on again and off again, being treated like crap but returning like a loyal little dog."

She was sounding very bitter now, so angry and torn up. It didn't suit her; she didn't deserve to be sad. She deserved only happiness, Leonardo thought. Her life at the moment wasn't exactly the happiest one, but he liked to think that it was better than the life she had before, in some ways at least.

"But you know what, I regret it." Olivia said suddenly, startling Leonardo with her unexpected words. Of all the things he thought she'd feel towards the situation, regret was not one of them. Olivia looked at him, eyes slightly welling up and glistening in a beautifully tragic way.

"I really _do_ wish I could go back in time and change everything, to have confessed my feelings for him earlier, or never at all. Somehow I feel that it could have worked between us had I waited a bit longer or acted a bit sooner." She choked, turning to the floor once more. "Watching him fade, watching him become a shadow of his former self. Watching as the man I _loved_ faded into a miserable low life that spends his days stalking the shopping centre where I worked, hanging out with a druggy, and showing up at my house in tears with a rose when I was on holiday."

Leonardo wanted to do something, he really did. He wanted to reach out, to take her in his arms and hold her close. He wanted to cradle her like a child but gaze into her eyes as a lover, promise her everything she wanted to hear and kiss her with passion. But he didn't, he didn't move a muscle. He didn't lift his arm to reach out, he didn't gaze into her eyes, he didn't kiss her lips. He just sat there, listening as she sniffed and offering no support. He couldn't. He couldn't let the guise fade, he couldn't show his feelings, he couldn't do what he _wanted_ to do. It would never work, would it? Could it work between them? They lived under the same roof; they'd need space from each other wouldn't they? And his brothers – whom he knew also had feelings for Olivia – would object, protest and maybe even start a fight about it – no turtle mentioned in particular. He didn't care, he wanted to. He would. Should he?

"Let's not talk about this anymore." Olivia mumbled with a sniff, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. "You know, you're a really good listener." Leonardo smiled casually and shrugged his shoulders in a nonchalant manner. Olivia smiled back, but then her expression faded into one of curiosity and confusion.

"I feel like I can really talk to you." She said, and no sooner had the words left her lips did Leonardo open his to awkwardly confess his feelings and risk it all on a gamble. But he only managed the first syllable of her name when a bloodcurdling scream cut him off.

There was no time to be shocked, only time to react. He darted forward just as Olivia hopped to his feet and dodged out of his way, swung the door open and sprinted out into the night. Raphael hadn't been on the verge of finding them, but Leonardo could see his brothers making their way over in the distance, they too had heard the scream. It was defiantly a female's scream, possibly from the alleyway a few meters away from them since it had been so loud. People being being cornered in an alleyway was a common occurrence in New York, be it by thugs, low lives or other mutants. The poor lady was about to scream again when four giant anthropomorphic turtles and one red dragon stepped in to save her.


	5. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

The girl did scream again when four giant turtles landed between her and the group of thugs cornering her, scrambling back as if they were contagious. The thugs forgotten, she did everything within her power to escape the freaks rather than the malicious men about to do god knows what to her, screaming all the while. Olivia, as always, wasn't allowed to fight with the turtles, so in this case she had the duty of trying to calm the hysterical woman down and get her to safety. Naturally, when the woman found herself face to face with red dragon mutant she screamed even louder.

"Will ya' shut her up!" Raphael barked as he lunched for one of the thugs and gave him one hard punch to the face. Olivia tried to calm the lady down by holding her by the shoulders and attempting to still her.

"It's alright, it's alright." Olivia repeated over and over again until they made eye contact and the woman calmed down a little. "We're not going to hurt you. We're here to help."

"What are you?" The woman cried; her voice all distorted and panicky from the stress. There was utter disgust and fear in her tone, something Olivia and the turtles were quite used to hearing from the people they rescued, it didn't make it any easier to hear though.

"We're '_special_', but that doesn't matter. What does matter is getting _you_ out of here and to somewhere safe."

Olivia took the woman's hand and dragged her toward the fighting with the aim of skirting around the edge as it was the only way out of the alley. Meanwhile, the turtles clashed against the thugs who had – not surprisingly – fought them before. They were a part of the purple dragons, a thug gang of mainly Japanese, all bearing a purple dragon tattoo somewhere on their body and the generally clothing colour scheme of black and purple. Unfortunately for them, their escapades usually caught the attention of the turtles and they often found themselves against the heroes in the half-shell.

Olivia stopped suddenly and the woman crashed into her, just as Michelangelo ducked to avoid a lead pipe, which ended up smashing into the wall just in front of Olivia's nose. She swallowed the yelp in her throat, bit her lip and somehow found the courage to continue. As fast as her legs would carry her, she yanked the woman forward and ducked to avoid Donatello's staff as it spun around to wack an oncoming thug. The woman avoided the staff too – thank goodness – and stumbled after Olivia, but still watched the turtles as if they were monsters.

For a fleeting moment Olivia wondered what it was like for the turtles, to save hundreds of people but receive nothing but screams and insults in return. How did it feel to have that every single day of your life, and hide in the sewer because you know the rest of the world would reject you? At least she had experienced what it was like to live a normal life, but they had never known such a world. Had they ever longed for it? Dreamed of living a normal life and not having to worry about being discovered, or had the thought never really crossed their minds.

Olivia's train of thought was halted when a purple dragon came hurtling towards her. He wasn't trying to attack her though, he was screaming very loudly, and only stopped when he smacked into the wall, falling to the floor in a heap and drifting into the world of unconsciousness. Olivia shot an irritated glare to the person who had thrown the thug at her – well, in her direction – and sure enough it was Raphael. He shrugged his shoulders, practically shrugging off the glare and returning to the fight. He didn't really care if he hurt Olivia, or was it that he made it seem that way so no one mistook his feelings for worry. God forbid that he actually care about someone else.

The woman – spotting an opening – wriggled her hand out of Olivia's and shoved her rescuer to the side as if the dragon would stop her attempt at freedom. Olivia lost her balance as she wasn't really paying attention to what the woman was doing – too focused on planning how she was going to punish Raphael for what he just did – and tumbled to the ground.

Spotting the turtle's fallen comrade, a very scrawny purple dragon thug who had been cowering behind a rubbish bin, saw his opportunity to turn the fight in his team's favour. He darted over, whipped out and knife and hauled Olivia to her feet by the hair, the steel blade held up against her throat. It took a second for Olivia to realise what was happening as the strands of her hair tugged at her scalp and a cool metal threatened to slice her neck if she dared to breathe. The shock and fear upon realisation made her chest heave up and down which didn't help her in any way, shape or form as with each shallow breath the blade pressed just that little bit more into her scales.

"Surrender or the bitch gets it." He yelled, just loud enough for Leonardo to hear and realise what was going on. He stopped fighting, as did his brothers, and turned to glare at the purple dragon that was holding their _red_ dragon hostage. They didn't drop their weapons though. In fact, Leonardo's grip tightened, as did Raphael's. Michelangelo looked scared, his carefree attitude lost and replaced by horror, and for a second, Olivia wanted to apologise to him for getting captured.

"I said surrender!" Drop your weapons!" The scrawny thug ordered. His friends wouldn't make a move against the turtles until they were unarmed. Leonardo hesitated, his piercing blue eyes locked on the thug's every move. The others wouldn't drop their weapons unless Leonardo did, and the thug wouldn't let Olivia go unless they dropped their weapons. It was all down to Leonardo. Olivia silently begged him not to. She was scared yeah, but not stupid, if they put their weapons down the purple dragons would probably attempt to kill them, and it would all be her fault. She wasn't worth their lives; she had only been with them for a year, hardly enough time to make an impact.

Leonardo didn't listen to her silent pleads and crouched down, putting his swords on the floor before straightening up again. Michelangelo and Donatello followed his example, but Raphael only clutched his Sais tighter.

"Raph." Leonardo hissed, whipping his head around to snap at his brother. "Drop your weapons." Raphael spat to the side, his spit landing at the feet of one of the thugs, but he did lower his weapons and watched the thug like a hawk when they collected them up.

"Let her go." Leonardo asked calmly, and if you didn't know him you wouldn't believe that he was about to explode with anger. The thug shook his head and smirked as if his '_master plan_' had all come together perfectly.

"Hell no, but here's what we're gonna do. You freaks are going to come with us without a fight and I won't cut this pretty little freaks head off."

"Why?" Donatello asked, studying the thug with his eyes to try and come up with a motive.

"You kidding me? There are hundreds of mob bosses who would relish at the opportunity to have you freaks in chains at their disposal. Imagine how much the infamous Shredder would pay to have the four ninja turtles locked up in _his_ dungeon."

"And what would become of our dear friend?" Leonardo asked with a sinister smile, gesturing to Olivia.

"I'm sure someone would want to buy her, she is a _female_ mutant after all. Some men have different tastes in women, and since she isn't human and can't exactly go to the police if someone were to–"

The thug was silenced when Olivia's sharp fangs buried into his skin, and the knife dropped to the ground. He hadn't been paying attention to her, thinking she was totally helpless, and his knife had wondered away from her neck, giving her just enough space to make a move. Clutching his now bleeding hand, the thug staggered back and Olivia took the opportunity to knock him off balance. She ducked down into a crouch and flicked her tail underneath his legs, knocking him onto his butt so she could make a speedy retreat. Again it was her body doing things her brain didn't tell it to, instinct acting on its own, but at least this time she wasn't failing at it.

Leonardo snatched his katana with ease from the thug holding the weapons, and gave a light laugh as the thug ran off down the alleyway. Raphael grabbed the back of one of the thug's heads and slammed him into his knee, blood spurting everywhere from the thug's broken nose and shattered teeth. One of the other thugs hurried over and grabbed his friend before they all scurried off into the darkness. The turtles didn't follow, they weren't too much of a threat running home with their tails between their legs, plus, Leonardo didn't seem remotely interested in catching them, he was too focused on Olivia.

"I'm fine." Olivia reassured Leonardo for the third time. "He didn't actually hurt me." Leonardo was holding her face in his hands, checking her pupils for dilation. He was close, really close actually; Olivia could practically feel the worry in his breathe as he checked her up and down for any injuries. '_This is kind of inappropriate_' Olivia thought to herself when Leonardo made her turn around so he could check her back as if she were some little girl being examined by the doctor. If he was looking at her back he had to have looked at her butt too, and Olivia wasn't quite sure how that sat with her.

He turned her back around again.

"Are you sure you're alright?" He asked for the fourth time, utter concern and worry covering his face.

"Yes, I'm not completely helpless."

"Still, this shouldn't have happened, next time you have to stay away from the fighting okay."

"No!" Olivia shouted, stomping her foot on the ground like a child throwing a tantrum. "You aren't leaving me behind!"

"We have no choice; I don't want you getting hurt."

"I can defend myself."

"You don't have any training."

"Then why won't you teach me?!"

Leonardo didn't respond to that, he straightened up awkwardly and pursed his lips into a mulish line. Aha, she had him with that one.

"That's a good point actually." Michelangelo piped up. "Why won't you teach her if you want her to be able to defend herself…?" His words trailed off as Leonardo shot him the coldest glare possible.

"Thankyou for your input." He hissed through clenched teeth. Then he turned back to Olivia who had a cocky smirk on her face. Olivia folded her arms and cocked her head to the side expectantly, waiting for his answer. She knew she had him, but right now she kind of wished she hadn't said anything. Those eyes. Strange how he could go from having such lovely warm eyes to frozen orbs. He was actually giving off similar vibes to Raphael. Perhaps they weren't as different as they thought they were. The red clad turtle in question was smirking at the little confrontation going on, obviously finding the whole thing quite amusing. Was it Olivia's cockiness or Leonardo's stubbornness that was amusing him though?

He massaged his brow and let out a begrudging sigh.

"Alright." He said, surrendered. "Alright. You can learn ninjitsu."

"Really?" Olivia squeaked, her voice practically breaking from the shock; she hadn't actually expected him to agree to it. "Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou!" She wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him tight in thanks. He seemed to relax a little, the cold demeanour gone and replaced with something much calmer. As Leonardo switched back to his friendly self, Raphael lost his smile and returned to brooding and grumbling about everything. It was like one could not be happy unless the other was irritated. No wonder Raphael always started fights, he couldn't be happy unless Leonardo was angry.

Raphael stalked into the kitchen, opened the fridge and snatched up a beer. With startling precision he flicked the top off with his Sai and glugged the contents down in five seconds flat. He hissed a disgusted and irritated breath in and chucked the empty in a bottle into the bin with a clink. Donatello leaned in the doorway, observing the whole situation and analysing all the information in his scientific brain. He very quickly came to the conclusion that Raphael was in a bad mood – not that you had to be a genius to figure that out. As his brother reached for another beer and flicked the top off that one, he decided to say something.

"Drinking our problems away are we?" He asked, pulling up a chair and sitting down at the table. Raphael paused to shoot daggers his brother's way, before necking the beer back as he had done the first. Donatello sighed with despair, why was it his brothers always turned to alcohol to fix their problems? No matter how often he stressed the dangers of excess alcohol consumption his brothers still chose to drink themselves into stupidity whenever someone said something hurtful or something unfavourable happened. Well, Leonardo had one or two before he skulked off to bed – and that was after a _really_ bad day as the blue clad turtle usually meditated his problems away instead of drinking – and Michelangelo could only manage a few before he passed out on the couch. But Raphael could drink until the cows came home and it took a serious amount of hard liquor before he started getting remotely tipsy. The scientific turtle that Donatello was he had done some studies on their anatomy and concluded that alcohol would cause severe problems for them much sooner than it would for a human as turtle livers hadn't exactly had much experience with alcohol. He worried about his brother's mental wellbeing as well as physical; all the alcohol couldn't be helping his self-esteem or attitude issues.

Raphael had moved onto his fourth beer now so Donatello decided to up the anti.

"How about you stop acting like an immature drama queen and talk to me." He snapped, rather harshly for someone too timid to talk to girls. Raphael glared at him with the intensity of a burning sun and Donatello immediately regretted the decision to snap at his brother, sinking in his seat. But then Raphael's expression softened and he put down the beer before he had drained its contents. It seemed like out of all his brothers, Raphael would not let himself get angry or yell at Donatello, no matter what he did or said.

"There's nothing to talk about." He muttered, folding his arms and leaning against the kitchen counter.

"Come on," Donatello coaxed, sitting back up straight with his hands clasped together on the table, "there has to be something bothering you." Raphael shrugged his shoulders but said nothing. Donatello looked at him with sympathetic eyes, trying to get him to open up, but the irritable turtle refused to say anything.

"Please Raphael, speak to me." He pleaded, practically begging, but his brother still refused to speak. With a sigh Donatello resolved to try a different approach.

"Alright then." He said bluntly, getting up and perching on the table. "I'll try and figure it out for myself." They locked and narrowed their eyes at each other for what seemed like an age, Raphael trying to stare Donatello down and Donatello trying to analyse what his brother was thinking. It became a staring contest, the loser would be the first to look away, and strangely enough, the turtle who hated to lose looked away first.

"Aha! I've got it." Donatello exclaimed the moment Raphael's eyes met the ground. With a smirk and a cocky look in his eyes Donatello stroked an invisible goatee like an evil mastermind.

"Girls."

"What?" Raphael exclaimed with a jump. His tone was shock but his face was flushing with pink.

"You generally drink when it's about a girl." Donatello diagnosed, but then pondered his answer. "Well, you drink when anything bad happens, but girls make you drink more than most things do." Raphael didn't dignify Donatello's conclusion with an answer so Donatello had to continue to guess.

"Is it because you've not been laid in a year?" Donatello suggested half-heartedly, and the sharp glare proved that answer wrong. It wasn't his most intelligent guess; Raphael was probably the _only_ one who had ever got laid out of the four of them, and since mutant freaks didn't get much opportunity with that sort of thing, he didn't have the emotional stamina to brood about it.

Donatello pondered some more, stroking the invisible goatee again with a professor like inquisitive look on his face. Then an answer hit him like a bolt of lightning.

"Oh, it's Mona! She's back in town isn't she?"

"Don't EVER mention that bitches name again!" Raphael thundered, this time actually yelling at Donatello, the one brother he couldn't get mad at. Donatello shrank away a bit, he should have known better not to touch that nerve. From what they knew about Raphael and the infamous Mona's relationship, it had been a very toxic and volatile affair

Mona Lisa – a physics students turned mutant gecko – was always very flirtatious towards the opposite sex, to anyone really, and that didn't work so well when she and Raphael got into a serious relationship. Well, Raphael thought it was serious, surprisingly the play hard turtle wasn't all that into one night stands and cheap flings, but actually wanted someone to be with and even settle down with – in a sense of the term at least. They were on and off a lot, the break ups dramatic and rather terrifying to witness as both had quite vengeful temperaments; Raphael's being a bit more outward and obvious while Mona's were much more cruel and manipulative, and their reunions equally as _loud_ – but that could be blocked out by _not_ going anywhere near the bedrooms. No one really knew _exactly_ what happened, but one day Mona just left and Raphael had been angry for a month, and what a terrifying month that had been. If that wasn't enough to make the topic a sensitive one, Mona had come back about a year later for about a week, and in that week, Raphael had been more angry and dangerous than ever, yet he was wrapped up in her arms the whole time before her sudden departure. It seemed like he hated her for something that she did, but was helpless to stop his lust for her when she returned, locking him into a helpless cycle of hate and desire that affected everyone around him.

There was a heavy silence in the room, weighing down on them like lead, crushing the conversation into mumbled letters Donatello could no longer remember. Tension practically radiated from Raphael, his fists clenched and his eyes narrowed into shards of radioactive ice, but ice had never seemed so volcanic. Donatello wet his lips and opened his mouth to apologise but Raphael snapped first.

"Ya' know what, just leave me alone." He growled, and swung open the fridge, snatched up a crate and stalked off to his room to _try_ and drink himself to sleep, leaving Donatello looking rather scared in the kitchen. He watched his brother go and furrowed his brow; somehow he didn't think Mona was the problem, even if his brother had reacted that way to hearing her name, but the issue had to be female. Nothing angered Raphael more than dealing with girls, but it wasn't like they knew many so who was he getting all irritated about?


	6. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Olivia bounced on the spot in the dojo, waiting for Leonardo – or rather, her sensei, (_god that sounded weird_) – to arrive and finally teach her ninjitsu. She'd been begging for lessons for ages, and now it was finally time for her to learn and actually be _helpful_ in a fight instead of just a nuisance who gets captured by weakling thugs. What would she learn first? How to flip someone the size of a house over her shoulder in one clean sweep? How to free run across the rooftops and leap from building to building as if it were nothing? Or perhaps she'd learn to wield a weapon like the turtles did, but what weapon would she use – scrap that – what weapon _could_ she use?

"Sorry I'm late." Leonardo apologised as he opened the siding doors into the dojo. "Been waiting long?" _Yes, a whole fifteen minutes actually._

"No." Olivia said casually, she didn't have the patience to complain. "Let's get started shall we. I was thinking that before we can do anything I need a weapon." Leonardo held his hands up before the words had finished leaving her lips and shook his head, almost chuckling to himself at her overenthusiasm.

"Slow down there. You can't learn to fight with a weapon until you at least learn some basic ninjitsu skills."

"Okay then, lets learn them and _then_ I can get a weapon."

"Before you can learn ninjitsu you need to mediate."

Olivia groaned and threw her hands up in the air, spinning around as she did so.

"But that's so boring!" She complained, letting her arms fall to her side as if they were lead weights.

"_That's_ ninjitsu." Leonardo said in a patronising voice, but he did grin and sigh as if he was giving up. Olivia's ears pricked up and she looked hopeful. Leonardo scrubbed a hand down his face and shook his head, but it was to himself, not Olivia.

"Alright. You can learn some moves." He said, caving into her demands. "But you have to promise to meditate for at least an hour every day."

"A whole hour!" Olivia exclaimed, but quieted down when she saw her chance of learning ninjitsu dwindle. "I mean, sure."

Leonardo taught her some basic self-defence moves she could use if anyone tried to attack her and to his surprise Olivia learnt very quickly. It was probably her determination to get her own weapon that drove her on, but at least she would be able to throw a thug over her shoulder if the situation ever arose again. Olivia was tired of being weak, she would be able to do something _more_ than help a frantic victim escape next time. After two hours of training, Olivia finally gave up on being polite and obedient.

"Can I have a weapon now? Please!" She begged just as Leonardo was about to make her practice a move for the twelfth time. He sighed and shook his head.

"Not until you have the basic moves down pact." He explained again, but Olivia wasn't going to take no for an answer.

"Come on. Please. I just want to pick one out so I have something to look forward to. I won't use it; I just want to say that I have one."

Just like before Leonardo caved in to the pleading and agreed. He opened the wardrobe were they kept the weapons while Olivia jumped about with excitement, she couldn't believe her skills of persuasion. Perhaps all the level ups on Skyrim had rubbed off on her.

Unfortunately, picking out a weapon was not as simple or _fun_ as Olivia had expected. Each weapon was fail after fail; she just wasn't capable of using any of them. The coordinating the katana was too much for her erratic brain to handle, and the Sai required more upper body strength than she'd realised. The nun-chucks managed to hit her more than the stuffed dummy, and she hadn't really fancied a bo-staff. But those were just the turtle's weapons, she had many more to try and fail at: mace, fan, ninja stars, throwing knives, pikes, all were useless in her hands.

Falling to the floor in despair Olivia surrendered to her fate.

"Maybe the world doesn't want me to be a ninja." She sighed, burying her face in her hands. Leonardo crouched down and patted her on the back, the contact sending little shivers up and down her body.

"This is why you need to train more. After a year or so of training you might find the weapon that suits you the best."

"Are you sure that's all the weapons?" Olivia pined, clutching onto any threat she could possibly find.

"Pretty much. Well…" Leonardo said on second thought. "Don't suppose you know how to use a bow and arrow?" Olivia's baby blues sparkled.

The arrow hit the target on the mark and even Leonardo's eyes widened with amazement. It turned out that Olivia was quite the natural at archery – that and she had done archery when she was human. The now uncharacteristically focused red dragon drew an arrow from the quiver and pulled back the bow. Her breathing quietened and then she held her breath to focus her aim. When her fingers unlatched, the arrow squealed through the air and straight next to the previous arrow in perfect grouping.

"Jesus, you're good." Leonardo gasped as Olivia drew back a third arrow.

"Thanks." Olivia said blankly as she let go of the third arrow and then showed some more expression once it had nestled itself safely on the other side of the first arrow.

"Did you compete?"

Olivia shook her head and giggled.

"Na, I actually only went to archery once or twice." Olivia confessed with a shrug. "I wasn't too shabby for a beginner though." Leonardo couldn't believe what he was hearing, the girl he had just witnessed fire three arrows into the centre of a target on the other side of the room was a _beginner_?

Olivia noticed Leonardo's shock and attempted to rectify the confusion.

"I guess my mutation must have improved my brain and eyesight or something."

Leonardo looked at Olivia as she explained how the things she was good at as a mutant she had been terrible at as a human, he couldn't really imagine her being bad at anything – other than patience that is.

A little skip in Leonardo's heartbeat made sweat form on his temple and that made him panic for a second until he realised it wasn't something medical causing it. It was a similar thing to before, when she had told him about her friend during hide-and-seek, only this time it felt a little different. He didn't feel like holding her close and protecting her in a warm and passionate way, he felt like slamming her against the wall and…

_No_. He stopped himself there. Such impulsive thoughts seemed more like something Raphael would do to a woman; Leonardo certainly wouldn't condone such primitive behaviour. Olivia was a princess – and she claimed to be one on many occasions – and deserved tender and sweet in all things, not dark, not dangerous, not savage.

"Leo?" Olivia asked, snapping Leonardo out of his panicked thoughts. "You okay?"

"Yes." Leonardo lied, trying to shrug off the thoughts, but they were spiralling around in his head like a demented vortex of depravity. He had to be focused, he had to be calm.

"You blanked out there for a bit. I asked if we were done for the day."

"Oh, not yet. Best run over a few basic moves before we finish up. How about a little sparing match?" Leonardo suggested, a sparring match always took his mind away from violent thoughts, strange how fighting did that for him.

"Okay." Olivia sighed, putting the bow back on the rack. "Just remember, I may be a wood elf when it comes to archery but ain't no Companion." Leonardo looked at her with a puzzled expression; he had no idea what she had just said.

"Xbox game. Don't worry about it."

Olivia threw the most attacks and jabs but landed the least, each time she took a shot at it Leonardo moved out the way or dodged so she narrowly missed it. The one time Olivia _did_ land a hit she had been lured into a trap and received quite a painful one back that nearly knocked her over. She backed off a little to catch her breath, and luckily for her, Leonardo decided not to take the opportunity to land a few hits of his own.

"Try to get yourself into that mindset where you're body does things without your brain telling it to do them. Mikey fights like that and it works for him." Leonardo suggested as Olivia took another stance.

"Yeah, but Mikey's a special case of unorthodox. I don't know if I'm quite at that level. But I'll try."

Olivia took a few deep breaths to calm herself and then she closed her eyes. Leonardo waited, he wouldn't take advantage of her dropped defences, he'd wait so he could see what she could do. Then, without warning, she darted forward and Leonardo blocked just in time, but he wasn't fast enough for the next attack and Olivia got the hit. Her eyes were open but glazed over as if she was in a trance, her body acting without the brain in control. It wasn't flawless however, in the chaos of their sparing match and flurry of punches and kicks their legs tangled up and they tripped.

Olivia's brain woke up when her head smacked into the ground and Leonardo landed on top of her. They were tangled up with arms and legs locked awkwardly around each other, but neither struggled to free themselves when their eyes locked. They were mere inches apart, Leonardo's body almost enveloping Olivia completely, his legs between hers and his arms either side of Olivia's shoulders. They froze up and gazed at each other for a short while, hesitation and anticipation hanging in the air like a rancid stench.

Then, with as short a warning as Olivia had given before, Leonardo mashed his lips against Olivia's so forcefully, Olivia flinched. Then, very eagerly, Olivia's arms wrapped around Leonardo's neck and her legs around his waist as they kissed, their tongues dancing in a cave of lust and saliva. Their body's seemed like one, pressed so forcefully against each other they looked as if they were about to mesh into one.

Biting on the soft flesh of her neck, Leonardo made Olivia gasp in pleasure and mild pain; he was being quite forceful and frisky from the calm, level headed leader he usually was. Sapphires flickered open into view and locked onto the jealous emeralds as if to say '_this treasure is mine_'. Raphael glared at his brother who had his hands on the precious ruby red angel he didn't know if he wanted or not, but seeing Leonardo with her certainly made him angry and he didn't like it when things made him angry.

He wanted to storm forward, yank them apart and beat his brother to a bloody pulp, but he resisted, and the resistance seemed to irritate Leonardo and made him coax his brother into rage through his eyes alone. Leonardo was dark when he wanted to be, and the dark Leonardo was not a Leonardo Raphael liked or tolerated, but he somehow managed to drag a tiny shard of restraint from his darkest depths and yank himself away from them, down the hallway and into the kitchen where a bottle of Jack was waiting to numb all his problems away… for a short time at least.

**Hi there, Olivia here. So Gregsonator is very sorry for not updating this fan fiction in a while and she feels really bad – especially with you guys constantly adding her to your favourites and following her. She does not deserve your praise. Sadly, exams and a serious case of writers block have kept Gregsonator away from her lovely fan fiction – as well as parents who think she needs to grow up. NEVER! She promises to update more frequently and will endeavour to get through the story so you guys can see what it's all about because a couple are getting the wrong idea. If she doesn't, I will personally beat her brain into submission. The reason this little message is here and not in some special section is because Gregsonator has no idea how to work Fanfictionnet properly ****J**


	7. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

It was a very strange feeling to wake up in the arms of another person, especially someone quite athletic and strong. In truth, it had been one of Olivia's fantasies to wake up in the arms of an athletic man who had held her close all night long – although she hadn't quite imagined the hunk to be an anthropomorphic turtle. Her eyelids fluttered open like butterfly wings as she gazed up at a warm and sweet smile from the usually rigid turtle.

"Morning." She said bashfully, feeling heat flush her cheeks but she knew Leonardo couldn't see it.

"Good morning." Leonardo said affectionately, and kissed the top of Olivia's head as if she were a dainty child. "Sleep well?"

"Yes." Olivia sighed dreamily. Then she realised that she had just done that and felt her whole body change to a brighter shade of red. Leonardo chuckled and pulled her closer briefly in a tight embrace before swinging his legs over the side of Olivia's bed.

Olivia sat up and watched him as he put on his elbow and knee pads back on and suited up in his usual ninja attire – which didn't really consist of much. Still, she had grown so used to seeing their ninja gear as clothing she sometimes freaked out when they didn't wear it, especially since they didn't wear anything else in its stead. The shell and chest plate certainly came in handy when it came to decency, but it had still felt kind of strange to be so close to Leonardo when he wasn't wearing anything.

The red dragon herself didn't really wear anything either, not even ninja equipment so she was practically naked all the time, but as she had grown used to them wearing next to nothing they had grown used to her walking about with nothing but her scales acting as a suit and her silver underbelly resembling a leotard of sorts. When Olivia thought about it, to anyone outside of the team it kind of sounded really bad. She subconsciously pulled the sheets up around her shoulders until she was nothing but a head atop a mound of fabric, all cosy and warm. Leonardo glanced at her and chuckled again.

"You look comfortable there, keep it up and I might just have to join you." He joked, sounding rather cheeky for the fearless leader. This side of Leonardo was another aspect Olivia had to get used to. Since their little make out session in the dojo after training several weeks ago they had been inseparable and Leonardo had been a little more flirty and carefree than he usually was. Sometimes he would find her in the middle of the day and kiss the hell out of her before returning to what he had been doing without anyone even realising – the perks of having a ninja… boyfriend? Was that what they were? A couple? They were certainly attracted to each other and met up to kiss quite a lot, but did that define a _couple_, or was it a case of lonely mutants needing some action.

No, Olivia concluded, it was a relationship of sorts. If it had been something more selfish and along the lines of personal, primitive needs then they would have '_done_ _it'_ already, or Leonardo would have at least pressured her a little. But he was as good as gold and didn't really take things too far. He was frisky and cheeky in a conservative, respectful way but Olivia got the impression he was deliberately holding himself back, that this wasn't his natural relationship behaviour. She shook her head violently. That couldn't be right. Leonardo had most likely never been in a relationship before; he was just finding his feet in the world of dating, just as she had done with _her_ first relationship.

"Oh hey." Olivia called just as Leonardo was about to leave. Leonardo stopped and looked at her, eyes practically begging for her to say '_come back to bed_' – not that he'd accept, he was still a little too serious for that.

"I don't suppose I could go out with you guys tonight, you know, for the patrol?"

Leonardo opened his mouth but Olivia wouldn't let him protest against it as he had the last few times.

"Please!" She begged, throwing the sheets aside and striding forward with her hands clasped together. "I've been training really hard and you said it yourself that I was advancing a lot faster than you guys had. Being out on patrol would _help_ my training wouldn't it? I could get some practical experience and if things get to heavy I'm great at running away-"

"Okay."

Olivia stopped, had Leonardo just agreed without sighing in defeat. Had she actually convinced him rather than bugged him to the point of submission? Today was going to be a good day for her.

"R-Really?" Olivia stuttered, shocked that her persuasion skills were becoming as adept as those in the gaming world.

"Practical training would be good to improve your skills and give you a feel for what it's _really_ like out there. Plus, if we run into any thugs you can show them what you've got."

Olivia flung her arms around Leonardo and almost knocked him over with the force of her hug.

"Thankyou thankyou thankyou!" She squealed like a teenager finally allowed to stay out late. Leonardo laughed at her eagerness but then softened and pulled her close for a brief but passionate kiss.

"Hey Liv, you up yet?" Michelangelo called as he wondered into the room. Olivia found herself stood facing the doorway and Leonardo nowhere to be seen. The dude had serious skills when it came to disappearing in an instant.

"Y-Yeah." Olivia stuttered, standing quite rigidly in the middle of the room. Michelangelo looked at her suspiciously for a second and then disregarded it completely.

"Up for a game of Soul Calibur 5?" Michelangelo asked with a beaming grin on his face. It was something like four in the afternoon – which was the equivalent of seven in the morning to the nocturnal household – and far too early for Xbox games in Olivia's mind.

"Eh, why not." She shrugged, and followed Michelangelo into the living room to fight it out for hours on end.

Leonardo slid out from under the bed and gave the room a quick check over before sighing with relief; he had dodged that bullet quite well. He had no idea how his brothers might react if they found out about the relationship between himself and Olivia so they were keeping the whole thing a secret. He suspected that his brothers would see him as a complete hypocrite since his daily lectures on ninja's not allowing anything to influence their decisions other than achieving the common good – even girls – were a dreaded event. The only one who knew about it but didn't think him a hypocrite was Raphael.

Their little encounter that day in the dojo and Leonardo decision to continue what he was doing rather than stop and try to explain to his brother whom he _had_ noticed trying to get his head around the concept that he might sort of have feelings for Olivia as well. Instead he had been quite selfish and vengeful and continued in his actions which only managed to drive a greater wedge between the two confliction personalities. But was he sorry? Not particularly.

As if the world had been reading Leonardo's thoughts and wanted a volcanic eruption to occur in New York City, Raphael appeared in the doorway and when he spotted Leonardo, his eyes practically glazed over with rage. Raphael's fists clenched so tightly his green knuckles blanched white and he bit into his lip so hard he started bleeding. Yet, he didn't say or do anything.

"What?" Leonardo asked casually, folding his arms and cocking his head to the side.

"Ya' know damn well what!" Raphael barked, his voice that of a vicious rabid hound locked in a cage snapping at the man who'd put him there.

"Oh come on. Am I not allowed romance in my life?" Leonardo sighed, leaning against the doorframe. He was within striking distance of his brother but he knew the volcanic turtle wouldn't attack him, not yet at least.

"Not with her." Raphael growled, gnashing his teeth together to try and contain his anger. Leonardo had watched his brother slowly become more volatile and aggressive over the course of his brief relationship with Olivia, but the reason for it couldn't entirely be jealousy.

"Is that so? And why not?"

"Because she's not what ya' think she is."

Of all the words to fall out of Raphael's mouth, those had not been the ones Leonardo expected. What did he mean by that? Was he implying some fact about Olivia only _he_ knew that would jeopardise their relationship? Or was he just bullshitting to get Leonardo away from the object of his desires.

"Look Raph. I know you're only just coming to the conclusion that you…"

"This ain't about me dickhead." Raphael yelled, so loud that Leonardo was worried that the others might hear their conversation – not that Raphael swearing was a rarity. "This is about _her_."

"So it _is_ about you." Leonardo concluded, sometimes his brother was a total idiot.

"Urgh! I'm crap with words!" Raphael cursed; punching the wall and making it crack. "What I mean is; I don't want _her_ to be hurt by _you_."

Leonardo unfolded his arms and stood up straight, ready for a fight if he needed to; he could feel one coming on, instigated by both him and Raphael.

"What are saying?" He asked calmly, trying not to let his irritation show through in his tone but he did speak sternly.

"I'm saying that you're bad for her. She isn't a naturally submissive person; she's wild and explosive, a bit like me in that respect." Raphael explained, he too ready for a fight.

"And you think you'd be better for her?"

"Will ya quit puttin' words in my mouth! No, I don't think that! I think you're still on that power trip thing where ya want everyone to conform around ya into good little soldiers, and ya want Olivia to become ya sweet little princess who dotes on ya every word and bats her eyelids like some fucking doormat."

"That's not true."

"Yeah it is. The same things happened before. You want a nice little lady who is totally dependent on ya but you can't find one so you try ya best to make one out of someone that ain't naturally that way. No wonder Karai left ya."

Leonardo couldn't restrain himself anymore. He lunged at his brother who hadn't expected such a sudden reaction and tackled him to the ground. He landed a punch on his brother's jaw and then another, knocking Raphael's head from left to right and spraying blood through the air. Then, with one powerful punch, Raphael sent him flying and this time, it was his turn to lunge. The two punched at each other, snarling as the other landed a hit, blood and the odd tooth flying across the room. Raphael was physically stronger and in a brawl he was the obvious winner, but Leonardo was faster and able to dodge more easily while Raphael just took the damage. Eventually, using that agility and his knowledge of pressure points, Leonardo disabled Raphael's arms and landed such a hard punch to Raphael's skull that it knocked his brother unconscious.

Staggering to his feet Leonardo looked around at the mess of blood and junk they had knocked over in the fight. He'd have to clean things up before Olivia returned to her room; he couldn't let her know what had happened. As he bent over to pick up a photo frame that had fallen off the stand he started to fret. Raphael was wrong, it wasn't like that. He just didn't know anything about Olivia's _true_ nature, that was all. Olivia _was_ a sweet and semi-submissive person, he wasn't trying to turn her into something she wasn't, and he hadn't done anything to suggest so. Raphael was just jealous, jealous that he couldn't have what he wanted because it was too late. If he'd acted sooner things may have been different, but he hadn't, and he couldn't change the past.

Olivia threw her arms in the air, the controller wire flying up as well, when her character on the game defeated Michelangelo's. The orange clad turtle's head fell into his hands with despair.

"How the hell did that happen? I was so close!" He exclaimed, gesturing to the screen where Olivia's character – a busty chick in really skimpy armour – celebrated her victory. Both had won one round each and the final round had been the decider of the three, and with only a fragment of HP left, Olivia had obliterated Michelangelo's character – an equally busty chick in even less armour – with a flashy finishing move.

"Rematch?" Olivia suggested, punching Michelangelo in the shoulder to get his attention.

"Are you kidding? Hell yes." Michelangelo exclaimed, his defeat turned into determination as they selected rematch from the options menu. Donatello shook his head and returned to his computer, he did not and would never fully understand their mentality. How could they repeat and repeat the same process of mashing buttons over and over again with the same result; one victor and one loser. Now an RPG like Skyrim was a game worth playing, there were quests to be completed and a story line – no, many storylines – to follow and a vast expanse of world to explore. Sure the pair played those games too, but fighting games seemed to their preferred option at the moment, the costumes getting skimpier with each rematch. If Donatello didn't know for a fact that Olivia was into guys – particular guys in blue – he would think she batted for the other team.

His computer blipped as a message popped up at the bottom of the screen. He clicked on it to open the message from April O'Neil. His heart fluttered a little as it always did when April messaged, although he knew and accepted that ship had long since sailed away.

"Have they told anyone yet?" The message said. Donatello rolled his eyes and replied with a sad "_no_".

"Really? How long are they going to keep us in the dark? Well, Michelangelo at least. You said that Raphael figured it out right?"

"Yeah." Donatello typed. "That's how I figured it out. His behaviour around the two of them kind of gave the game away."

"Do you think he's jealous?"

Donatello thought for a bit but couldn't find an answer so he settled with a "_maybe_".

"I don't know what to make of it all. Neither of them really seem like good matches. Raphael's too aggressive to have a stable relationship with and you mentioned that Leonardo kinda acts funny in relationships?"

"Yeah, he did last time with Karai. He gets all flirty and acts kind of childishly, like a young teenager experiencing love for the first time, you know, can't keep his hands to himself."

"Really? I would have pegged him as a conservative steady going type."

"Yeah, but he's really quite touchy feely for someone who acts so stoic and stern all the time. But that's not the problem. He kind of starts acting a little weird later on, it was what ruined his relationship with Karai and made her move back to Japan."

"What happened?"

Donatello paused. He didn't know if he should tell April about what happened. She was his closest friend, closer than his brothers, but there were some things he just couldn't tell her. But April was also the only _girlfriend_ Olivia had and as such she needed to be able to help Olivia with girl things as best she could. If Olivia was in danger of getting her heart broken, she needed someone there to warn her before it happened and console her if it did.

"He started trying to _change_ Karai. Make her into someone she wasn't. Karai was naturally a very spirit and very capable of looking after herself, but Leonardo wanted to protect her in a very primitive way. Since Karai didn't want or need protecting, he tried to change her into someone who did, only it didn't work and Karai sussed out what was going on. Thus ended the relationship."

"Dear Lord that's awful. And you think that Leonardo might be doing that again?"

"Maybe. Olivia isn't as independent as Karai and kind of does need protecting – mainly from herself – but I think she'd react more badly to being controlled and doted on. It seems to be all good right now, but that must just be the happy-go-lucky budding romance stage of the relationship working its magic."

"Haha, their lucky. I never had that with Casey."

Donatello's eyes went blank and he stared numbly at the coffee cup on his desk. April spoke the truth, she and Casey hadn't gone through the happy-go-lucky budding romance stage, they had dived headfirst into a full on romance between a good, intelligent girl and a rebel boy, just like the movies and popular teen fiction. Naturally, the intelligent girl getting with the nerdy boy just wasn't material that sold, hence why he was still sat alone at his desk taking to a girl who he still secretly prayed would one day realise and return his feelings.

"You there Donnie?" The message bleeped. Donatello had been idle for a few minutes he realised, and the silence was beginning to make questions arise he didn't want April asking.

"Yeah, sorry, had to get more coffee. Look I've got to go; I'll keep you posted on the love triangle situation. See you."

And with that, he closed the messenger and got up to go and get himself another coffee. Maybe he'd follow Raphael's example and have a beer instead. It was still early, but when it came to girls, no liquor or beer could be consumed in excessive consumption too early in the morning.


End file.
